For minimum wage workers, there’s no catching up with the rent
Until last month, Mikayla Droz slept on the floor of a one-bedroom apartment she shared with two other people. Before that, she lived in a trailer in what she describes as a “commune” near Tumwater, a two-hour walk from the nearest bus stop.
Droz, who earns $15 per hour working overnight shifts as an in-home caregiver, is just one example among many low-wage workers who must seek increasingly creative arrangements to scrape by as housing costs in Olympia skyrocket.
There is not a single state in the country where a worker earning minimum-wage can afford a two-bedroom apartment at HUD’s Fair Market Rent, according to a recent report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), which tracked how many hours per week a person making minimum wage in each state would have to work to comfortably afford a modest apartment.
In Washington, that would be 86 hours a week – the equivalent of two full-time jobs.
That makes the state the seventh most unaffordable in the country, behind California, Hawaii, New York, and Massachusetts.
Although she’s already working more than 60 hours a week, Droz takes on occasional odd jobs from a temp agency, and is contemplating taking on a second job to keep up with the $2,000 month rent at the two-bedroom apartment she now shares with her partner and a friend.
And all that is despite Washington having a minimum wage of $13.69 per hour, which is much higher than the federal minimum of $7.25. Wages in Washington have not nearly kept pace with housing costs, which now average more than $1,500 per month for a two-bedroom apartment.
Gulf between wages and rents deepens
Put another way: to afford a two-bedroom apartment without paying more than 30% of income to rent, a worker in Washington would need to make $29.30 per hour.
Cory Miller, who has lived in Olympia since 2008, remembers when it was possible to split a house — albeit a shoddy one — for less than $400 per month. That kind of deal has disappeared, as rents in Thurston County have doubled in the last 20 years.
Over the last decade, Miller has rented a succession of rundown houses from landlords with a tacit understanding that low rents meant they would neglect the property: one house lacked insulation, while another had a rodent infestation in the attic.
Miller described it as an unwritten arrangement: “You don’t complain and I keep the rent cheap.” Back then, when he was a student at The Evergreen State College, group living in ramshackle houses was a lifestyle. But as prices have risen, it increasingly feels more like a mandate.
Miller, who makes $13.75 per hour doing customer service for Verizon, lucked into a house with two roommates on Tumwater Hill and pays $625 per month, which allows him to save a bit each month, if he’s frugal. The place is rented under market rate because one of the roommates’ parents owns the house.
Miller has other advantages: One roommate works at Safeway, so he gets discounts on groceries. Working for Verizon gets him a discount on his phone bill.
Droz’s margins are more threadbare. All of her monthly income is eaten up by rent, transportation, and medical care, and she relies on food stamps and the food bank for groceries. She only recently got health insurance through her job, and has delayed seeking medical care because she can’t pay for it.
“Anything extra we simply cannot afford,” she said.
Playing catch up
For Amy Towle, who has three young children, low-wage work simply doesn’t pencil out.
Towle earns $15 per hour as a shift leader at Taco Bell, a job she landed near the beginning of the pandemic when few places were hiring.
Because of her sub-par credit score, Towle has struggled to find permanent housing, so for much of 2020 she was living in a hotel. She got behind on rent, which was $3,200 per month, and was saved only by the eviction moratorium.
She estimates she applied to 10 apartments before being accepted a few months ago into a two-bedroom apartment that costs $1,853 per month — just about her entire monthly income after taxes. That leaves nothing for gas, diapers, food, child care, and other necessities for her three young children.
Towle attempts to keep her head above water by juggling bills, paying her phone bill one month and her car bill the next. She’s now behind on rent, and hasn’t been able to access rental assistance.
“You can’t save when you’re still playing catch up from the month before,” Towle said.
The perpetual cycle of compounding bills is stressful.
“People think that people making minimum wage have more than enough just because they have a job,” Towle said. “I don’t like working six days a week, it’s not fun at all. It’s more like I have to.”
This story was originally published July 25, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
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