The Average Hours You Need To Work To Live Comfortably in Every State
It takes more than 40 hours a week on a median hourly wage.
Hawaii
- Median household income: $74,923
- Median hourly wage: $20.42
- Total annual cost of living: $64,695.32
- Salary needed to live comfortably: $129,390.64
Average hours you need to work in a week: 121.86
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Methodology: GOBankingRates looked at the cost of living in all 50 states and Washington D.C. to determine the average hours you need to work to live comfortably in each state. First, GOBankingRates sourced cost of living indices for each state in the following categories: grocery, housing, utilities, transportation and healthcare, all sourced from the Missouri Economic and Research Center’s (MERIC) 2019 second quarter cost of living data series.
To determine the total cost of living GOBankingRates looked at the (1) annual cost of food/groceries based on the “food at home” annual expenditure for all consumer units, sourced from the 2018 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Consumer Expenditure Survey. This cost was then adjusted to each state’s cost of living using MERIC’s grocery index; (2) annual cost of housing, based on the “shelter” annual expenditure for all consumer units, sourced from the 2018 BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey. This cost was then adjusted to each state’s cost of living using MERIC's housing index; (3) annual cost of utilities, based on the “utilities, fuels and public services” annual expenditure for all consumer units, sourced from the 2018 BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey. This cost was then adjusted to each state’s cost of living MERIC’s utilities index; (4) annual cost of healthcare, based on the “healthcare” annual expenditure for all consumer units, sourced from the 2018 BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey. This cost was then adjusted to each state’s cost of living using MERIC’s healthcare index; (5) annual cost of transportation, based on the “gasoline, other fuels and motor oil” plus “other vehicle expenses” annual expenditures for all consumer units, sourced from the 2018 BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey. This cost was then adjusted to each state’s cost of living using MERIC’s index.
Factors one through five were combined to give the (6) total annual cost of living, which was then doubled to give the (7) salary needed to ”live comfortably.” This figure was settled on because, according to the 50/30/20 budget rule, an individual’s necessities should make up 50% of their expenses. GOBankingRates determined that one should have double saved up in order to “live comfortably.” Factor seven was then divided by the state’s median hourly wage as sourced from the BLS’ May 2018 state occupational and wage estimates to give the (8) total hours needed to work to earn a “comfortable” salary. Finally, factor eight was divided by 52 to determine the only ranking factor: the (9) average weekly hours required to earn a “comfortable” salary.
Median household income from each state was gathered as supplemental data and sourced from the United States Census Bureau’s 2017 American Community Survey. All data was collected and accurate as of Oct. 29, 2019.
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