The Average Hours You Need To Work To Live Comfortably in Every State

Are you earning enough to get by or to get ahead? In other words, can you cover your bills and then have money left over to pay for things you want and to save for the future?

If you worked a 40-hour workweek earning the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, you would earn $15,080 a year before taxes and any other payroll deductions. That’s only a hair above the federal poverty line of $15,060.

There’s been a push to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour to provide workers with a living wage. Numerous states already have passed legislation that will gradually increase their minimum hourly wage to $15 or more, including California’s minimum wage recently increased to $20 an hour as of 2024. So, let’s say you make $15 per hour, with a 40-hour workweek, your annual pretax income would be $31,200.

That could be enough to get by, but if you made $15 per hour and wanted to have enough to pay for anything beyond essentials and to save, you’d have to work more than 40 hours a week.

Of course, how much you’d actually need to work to live comfortably would depend on your wages and the cost of living in your area. To give you an idea of what it would take, GOBankingRates crunched the numbers.

To determine the number of hours you would need to work to live comfortably in each state, GOBankingRates looked at the cost of living in all 50 states using data from the Missouri Economic and Research Center and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Cost of living factors included housing, groceries, utilities, transportation and healthcare. These factors were added up for an annual cost of living, which was doubled to come up with the annual salary needed to live comfortably. That figure is based on the 50/30/20 budget rule, which states that necessities should make up 50% of expenses. The other 30% goes to nonessential items, and 20% goes to savings.

GOBankingRates then divided the salary needed to live comfortably by the state’s median hourly wage to get the total number of hours needed to work to cover expenses, nonessential items and savings. Keep reading to find out whether you have to work 40 hours a week — or more — to make enough to live comfortably in your state.

• Median hourly wage: $29.84
• Total annual necessities cost: $31,697
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $63,395

Average hours you need to work in a week: 40.86

• Median hourly wage: $36.04
• Total annual necessities cost: $48,679
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $97,358

Average hours you need to work in a week: 51.95

• Median hourly wage: $32.59
• Total annual necessities cost: $41,032
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $82,065

Average hours you need to work in a week: 48.42

• Median hourly wage: $28.20
• Total annual necessities cost: $31,774
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $63,547

Average hours you need to work in a week: 43.4

• Median hourly wage: $38.75
• Total annual necessities cost: $56,077
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $112,154

Average hours you need to work in a week: 55.66

• Median hourly wage: $37.23
• Total annual necessities cost: $39,605
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $79,210

Average hours you need to work in a week: 40.92

• Median hourly wage: $37.19
• Total annual necessities cost: $39,605
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $42,858

Average hours you need to work in a week: 44.32

• Median hourly wage: $32.81
• Total annual necessities cost: $37,480
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $74,959

Average hours you need to work in a week: 43.94

• Median hourly wage: $31.93
• Total annual necessities cost: $38,072
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $76,144

Average hours you need to work in a week: 45.86

• Median hourly wage: $31.10
• Total annual necessities cost: $33,198
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $66,396

Average hours you need to work in a week: 41.06

• Median hourly wage: $36.48 
• Total annual necessities cost: $75,549  
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $151,097 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 79.65

• Median hourly wage: $31.57 
• Total annual necessities cost: $36,687  
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $73,373 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 44.69

• Median hourly wage: $33.84
• Total annual necessities cost: $33,916 
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $67,832 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 38.55

• Median hourly wage: $30.02
• Total annual necessities cost: $33,741
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $67,482 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 43.23

• Median hourly wage: $29.66
• Total annual necessities cost: $33,275
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $66,549

Average hours you need to work in a week: 43.15

• Median hourly wage: $29.68 
• Total annual necessities cost: $32,104 
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $64,209 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 41.60

• Median hourly wage: $28.77
• Total annual necessities cost: $32,512
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $65,024 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 43.46

• Median hourly wage: $28.09 
• Total annual necessities cost: $33,513
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $67,025 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 45.89 

• Median hourly wage: $31.33 
• Total annual necessities cost: $41,290
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $82,580 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 50.69

• Median hourly wage: $35.12 
• Total annual necessities cost: $44,876 
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $89,751 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 49.15

• Median hourly wage: $41.05 
• Total annual necessities cost: $58,5670
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $117,140

Average hours you need to work in a week: 54.88

• Median hourly wage: $32.18 
• Total annual necessities cost: $33.601
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $67,202 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 40.16 

• Median hourly wage: $37.46  
• Total annual necessities cost: $34,907  
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $69,8154  

Average hours you need to work in a week: 35.84

• Median hourly wage: $25.85 
• Total annual necessities cost: $31,596 
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $63,192  

Average hours you need to work in a week: 47.01 

• Median hourly wage: $31.67 
• Total annual necessities cost: $32,671 
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $65,342  

Average hours you need to work in a week: 39.68  

• Median hourly wage: $31.91  
• Total annual necessities cost: $38,421 
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $76,841   

Average hours you need to work in a week: 46.31

• Median hourly wage: $31.83 
• Total annual necessities cost: $33,446
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $66,891    

Average hours you need to work in a week: 40.41

• Median hourly wage: $29.69
• Total annual necessities cost: $39,430
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $78,860    

Average hours you need to work in a week: 51.08  

• Median hourly wage: $34.31 
• Total annual necessities cost: $41,926  
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $83,852    

Average hours you need to work in a week: 47.00 

• Median hourly wage: $35.77 
• Total annual necessities cost: $43,568 
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $87,136    

Average hours you need to work in a week: 46.85 

• Median hourly wage: $27.68 
• Total annual necessities cost: $34,792
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $69,584  

Average hours you need to work in a week: 48.34

• Median hourly wage: $37.83 
• Total annual necessities cost: $49,703
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $99,407  

Average hours you need to work in a week: 50.53 

• Median hourly wage: $32.15 
• Total annual necessities cost: $35,686
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $71,373  

Average hours you need to work in a week: 42.69  

• Median hourly wage: $33.54
• Total annual necessities cost: $35,394 
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $70,788  

Average hours you need to work in a week: 40.59  

• Median hourly wage: $31.13
• Total annual necessities cost: $34,784
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $69,568  

Average hours you need to work in a week: 42.98 

• Median hourly wage: $30.15 
• Total annual necessities cost: $31,645  
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $63,289 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 40.37 

• Median hourly wage: $35.45 
• Total annual necessities cost: $44,609 
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $89,218 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 48.40 

• Median hourly wage: $31.44
• Total annual necessities cost: $35,297 
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $70,594 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 43.18

• Median hourly wage: $35.35 
• Total annual necessities cost: $40,590
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $81,180 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 44.16

• Median hourly wage: $30.20
• Total annual necessities cost: $34,893.10 
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $69,786 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 44.44

• Median hourly wage: $30.90
• Total annual necessities cost: $34,648
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $69,296 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 43.13

• Median hourly wage: $30.23
• Total annual necessities cost: $33,060.02 
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $66,120 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 42.06

• Median hourly wage: $32.83
• Total annual necessities cost: $34,121
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $68,242 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 39.97

• Median hourly wage: $33.86 
• Total annual necessities cost: $38,671 
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $77,343 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 43.93

• Median hourly wage: $33.68 
• Total annual necessities cost: $44,416
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $88,831 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 50.72

• Median hourly wage: $34.10 
• Total annual necessities cost: $38,387  
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $76,774 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 43.30

• Median hourly wage: $41.24 
• Total annual necessities cost: $44,740  
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $89,479 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 41.73

• Median hourly wage: $28.22 
• Total annual necessities cost: $31,858 
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $63,716 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 43.42 

• Median hourly wage: $33.07 
• Total annual necessities cost: $35,971 
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $71,943 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 41.84

• Median hourly wage: $30.71 
• Total annual necessities cost: $33,845 
• Salary needed to live comfortably: $67,690 

Average hours you need to work in a week: 42.39  

Cameron Huddleston contributed to the reporting for this article.