A month of full-time work should take home at least four times the rent on a place of your own. Enter the ZIP code where the job is and the pay to see whether it meets the standard.
(Median housing cost × 4) ÷ 160 hrs = required take-home per hour
Housing for one: living/sleeping area, bathroom, full kitchen.
The county figure sets the standard. ZIP figures are context only and never change a verdict. Flagged ZIPs run more than 10% from the county figure.
ZIP
Place
Studio / mo
vs county
Take-home / hr
Gross / hr
Where the numbers come from
Housing cost: HUD Fair Market Rents for a studio (efficiency), gross rent including utilities.
County figure: the middle value of HUD's ZIP-level studio rents for residential ZIP codes whose homes are mostly in the county. Counties with fewer than three such ZIPs use HUD's county figure.
ZIP to county: HUD USPS ZIP–County Crosswalk. Each ZIP goes to the county holding most of its addresses; other counties holding at least 5% are offered as choices.
Taxes: federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare, state income tax and state payroll deductions for a single filer, computed with the open-source PolicyEngine model. New York City and Maryland county income taxes are included; other local income taxes are not yet.
Minimum wage: state rate from the U.S. Department of Labor, with regional rates for New York and Oregon. City and county ordinances are not yet included.
How the verdict works
The standard is set on take-home pay. The gross figure is the pre-tax hourly rate that produces it for a single filer at 160 hours a month.
A job is judged on its gross hourly rate against the gross standard. Salaries are converted at the stated weekly hours.
Part-time jobs can meet the hourly standard while falling short of the monthly target. Both are shown.
Assumes no pre-tax deductions such as health premiums or retirement contributions.
Known limits
HUD rents sit at the 40th percentile of local rents, below the true median. Figures here are a floor.
When a ZIP code crosses county lines, pick the county where the job actually is.