In New Hampshire a modest 2-bedroom costs 155% of a full-time minimum-wage paycheck — the rent is more than the whole check

Name: Rent vs. minimum wage by state: 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent as a share of a full-time minimum-wage paycheck (2026)
Creator: MigrantUSA
License: https://migrantusa.com/terms/

Median 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent as a share of a full-time (2,080-hour) minimum-wage income, all 50 states, DC and Puerto Rico. HUD's FY2026 FMRs joined to each state's effective minimum wage. In New Hampshire a modest 2-bedroom runs $1,950/mo against a $7.25 floor — 155% of the whole paycheck. 18 states are over 70%; the national median is 64%. The 20 states still at the federal $7.25 floor dominate the worst end.

When the rent is more than the whole paycheck

The finding: take HUD’s median 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent in each state and measure it against a full-time, year-round paycheck at that state’s minimum wage. Across the country, the median result is that a modest 2-bedroom would eat 64% of the paycheck. In one state it eats more than all of it. The five worst:

State	Min. wage	2BR rent/mo	Annual income	Rent as % of paycheck
New Hampshire	$7.25	$1,950	$15,080	155%
Utah	$7.25	$1,153	$15,080	92%
Hawaii	$16.00	$2,492	$33,280	90%
Idaho	$7.25	$1,079	$15,080	86%
Pennsylvania	$7.25	$1,032	$15,080	82%

New Hampshire is the one to sit with. It has no state minimum wage, so its floor is the federal $7.25 — a full-time year pays $15,080 before taxes. Its median 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent is $1,950 a month, or $23,400 a year. The rent is 155% of the entire paycheck: a single full-time minimum-wage job does not come close to covering a modest apartment.

Eighteen states have 2-bedroom rents above 70% of a full-time minimum-wage income. Twenty states — including Texas (81%), Idaho, Utah and Pennsylvania — still sit at the federal $7.25 floor, and they dominate the worst end of the table.

Every state, worst first

Annual rent on a 2-bedroom (the state's median HUD Fair Market Rent) as a percentage of a full-time (2,080-hour) income at the state's effective minimum wage. Marked rows are above the national median of 64.4%; in bold red, rent exceeds the entire paycheck.

State	Min. wage	Annual income	2BR rent/mo	% of paycheck
New Hampshire ($7.25)	$7.25	$15,080	$1,950	155.2%
Utah ($7.25)	$7.25	$15,080	$1,153	91.8%
Hawaii	$16.00	$33,280	$2,492	89.9%
Idaho ($7.25)	$7.25	$15,080	$1,079	85.9%
Pennsylvania ($7.25)	$7.25	$15,080	$1,032	82.1%
Texas ($7.25)	$7.25	$15,080	$1,015	80.8%
South Carolina ($7.25)	$7.25	$15,080	$1,001	79.7%
Massachusetts	$15.00	$31,200	$2,067	79.5%
North Carolina ($7.25)	$7.25	$15,080	$998	79.4%
Wyoming ($7.25)	$7.25	$15,080	$980	78.0%
Wisconsin ($7.25)	$7.25	$15,080	$975	77.6%
Georgia ($7.25)	$7.25	$15,080	$973	77.4%
Indiana ($7.25)	$7.25	$15,080	$971	77.3%
Oklahoma ($7.25)	$7.25	$15,080	$937	74.6%
Tennessee ($7.25)	$7.25	$15,080	$933	74.2%
Iowa ($7.25)	$7.25	$15,080	$919	73.1%
New Jersey	$15.92	$33,114	$1,950	70.7%
District of Columbia	$18.40	$38,272	$2,246	70.4%
Kansas ($7.25)	$7.25	$15,080	$877	69.8%
Montana	$10.85	$22,568	$1,307	69.5%
North Dakota ($7.25)	$7.25	$15,080	$873	69.5%
Kentucky ($7.25)	$7.25	$15,080	$866	68.9%
Louisiana ($7.25)	$7.25	$15,080	$866	68.9%
Mississippi ($7.25)	$7.25	$15,080	$842	67.0%
Nevada	$12.00	$24,960	$1,393	67.0%
Alabama ($7.25)	$7.25	$15,080	$837	66.6%
Rhode Island	$16.00	$33,280	$1,729	62.3%
Connecticut	$16.94	$35,235	$1,826	62.2%
Alaska	$14.00	$29,120	$1,424	58.7%
West Virginia	$8.75	$18,200	$869	57.3%
Delaware	$15.00	$31,200	$1,470	56.5%
California	$16.90	$35,152	$1,625	55.5%
Florida	$14.00	$29,120	$1,337	55.1%
Maine	$15.10	$31,408	$1,438	54.9%
Vermont	$14.42	$29,994	$1,353	54.1%
Ohio	$11.00	$22,880	$978	51.3%
Arizona	$15.15	$31,512	$1,337	50.9%
Maryland	$15.00	$31,200	$1,314	50.5%
Oregon	$15.55	$32,344	$1,346	49.9%
Minnesota	$11.41	$23,733	$973	49.2%
New Mexico	$12.00	$24,960	$1,006	48.4%
Arkansas	$11.00	$22,880	$880	46.2%
Virginia	$12.77	$26,562	$1,022	46.2%
Washington	$17.13	$35,630	$1,354	45.6%
South Dakota	$11.85	$24,648	$929	45.2%
Colorado	$15.16	$31,533	$1,164	44.3%
Michigan	$13.73	$28,558	$1,023	43.0%
New York	$17.00	$35,360	$1,185	40.2%
Nebraska	$15.00	$31,200	$961	37.0%
Illinois	$15.00	$31,200	$916	35.2%
Missouri	$15.00	$31,200	$888	34.2%
Puerto Rico	$10.50	$21,840	$523	28.7%

Sources: HUD Fair Market Rents (FY2026) and the DOL consolidated minimum-wage table (federal $7.25 fallback). State rent is the unweighted median across HUD areas; income is gross (pre-tax), so the real burden is higher.

What the data shows

The floor states are the squeezed states. Four of the five worst — New Hampshire, Utah, Idaho, Pennsylvania — pay the federal $7.25 minimum. The best-off — Missouri, Illinois, Nebraska, New York — have all raised their wage well above it. Where the wage floor moved, the rent burden eased; where it didn’t, rent swallowed the paycheck.
A higher wage isn’t always enough. Hawaii pays $16.00 an hour, more than double the federal floor, and a 2-bedroom still costs 90% of a full-time paycheck, because the median rent is $2,492. The wage and the rent both matter.
The gap is national, not regional. High-cost coastal states, low-wage Southern and Mountain-West states, and small New England states all appear in the worst half. The national median is 64% of the paycheck — before taxes.
This understates it. The income here is gross; real take-home is lower. And the state rent is the unweighted median across HUD areas, which sits below the rent in the metros where most renters actually live.

Why this matters

For a recent immigrant taking an entry-level job, the minimum wage is often the starting wage, and a 2-bedroom is often what a family needs. This table is the distance between those two facts. Where rent runs past 80 or 90% of a full-time minimum-wage paycheck, a household cannot make the arithmetic work on one such job — which is the daily reality behind doubling up, renting single rooms, working two jobs, and long commutes from cheaper areas.

It also shapes which states are livable on entry-level pay. A worker choosing between Missouri (34% of a paycheck) and New Hampshire (155%) is choosing between very different odds of keeping a roof over a family, on the same hours of work.

Two honest limits. The minimum wage is a floor, not the typical wage — most workers earn more and face a smaller version of this gap; the floor is used because it is what the lowest-paid earn and what policy can move. And a state figure hides local variation — rent in a state’s big metro is higher than its median, and its rural areas lower, so any single row is a state-level signal, not a specific household’s rent.

If you are comparing places to live or work, MigrantUSA also publishes the minimum wage against the federal poverty line by state, and state-by-state tax treatment for ITIN filers.

Method and caveat

For each jurisdiction, annual rent is the state’s median 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent (HUD FY2026, the 40th-percentile gross rent, taken as the unweighted median across the state’s HUD areas) times twelve. Annual income is 2,080 hours (40 hours × 52 weeks) at the state’s effective minimum wage — the state floor, or the federal $7.25 where no state law is higher; multi-rate states use the standard statewide rate, not the highest regional one. The reported figure is annual rent divided by annual income.

Three limits are stated plainly. Income is gross (pre-tax), so the true burden is higher than shown. The state rent is an unweighted median across HUD areas, which is lower than a population-weighted figure would be, so metro states are understated. And the ratio measures the gap between the wage floor and typical rent, not a household budget — it does not claim minimum-wage workers rent 2-bedrooms alone at the 40th-percentile rent. Fair Market Rents are reset each fiscal year and minimum wages change; confirm at huduser.gov and dol.gov before relying on a single figure.

Download the data: fmr_wage_burden.json — all 52 jurisdictions, with minimum wage, annual income, median 2-bedroom rent, rent as a percentage of the paycheck, and the 30%-of-income hours-per-week figure.

Suggested citation: MigrantUSA, “Rent vs. minimum wage by state, 2026,” https://migrantusa.com/datasets/rent-vs-minimum-wage/ (accessed [date]).

Newsrooms, housing and immigrant-services organizations, and tenant-rights groups: drop in the panel below. It shows the national median and the states where rent eats the most of a minimum-wage paycheck, and updates when HUD and the states refresh their figures.

<iframe src="https://migrantusa.com/embed/rent-vs-minimum-wage/" width="100%" height="560"
        style="border:1px solid #e2e8e4;border-radius:8px;max-width:640px"
        title="Rent vs. minimum wage by state" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<p style="font-size:12px">Source: <a href="https://migrantusa.com/datasets/rent-vs-minimum-wage/">MigrantUSA — rent vs. minimum wage by state</a></p>

Frequently asked questions

What does this dataset measure?

For each of the 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico, it takes the median 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent across the state’s HUD areas, multiplies by 12 for the annual rent, and divides by a full-time (2,080-hour) year at the state’s effective minimum wage. The result is what share of a full-time minimum-wage paycheck a modest 2-bedroom would consume. Fair Market Rents are HUD’s FY2026 figures; the minimum wage is the state’s floor, or the federal $7.25 where a state has no higher law.

How can rent be more than 100% of income?

In New Hampshire the median 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent is $1,950 a month — $23,400 a year — while a full-time job at the state’s $7.25 minimum wage pays $15,080 a year before taxes. The rent alone is 155% of the entire paycheck. It is not that anyone literally pays 155% of their income in rent; it is that a single full-time minimum-wage job does not cover a modest 2-bedroom at all, which is why low-wage renters double up, take second jobs, rent a single room, or rely on assistance.

Which states are the worst and best?

Worst: New Hampshire (155%), Utah (92%), Hawaii (90%), Idaho (86%), and Pennsylvania (82%). Best: Puerto Rico (29%), Missouri (34%), Illinois (35%), Nebraska (37%), and New York (40%). The pattern is clear — four of the five worst states still sit at the federal $7.25 floor, while the best-off states have raised their minimum wage well above it. Hawaii is the exception that proves it: a $16 minimum wage still can’t keep up with a $2,492 median 2-bedroom.

Isn't this the same as NLIHC's 'Out of Reach'?

It uses the same two public inputs (HUD Fair Market Rents and the minimum wage) but reports a different number. NLIHC’s ‘Out of Reach’ leads with a ‘housing wage’ — the hourly pay you would need to afford a 2-bedroom at 30% of income. This asset leads with the reverse, and more concrete, figure: the share of an actual full-time minimum-wage paycheck that rent consumes. The 30%-of-income ‘hours per week’ figure is included in the data file for anyone who wants it.

Why the minimum wage rather than the median or typical wage?

Because the minimum wage is the floor that the lowest-paid workers — including many recent immigrants in entry-level jobs — actually earn, and it is the number a policy floor can move. Workers earning more than the minimum face a smaller version of the same gap. The point of the ratio is to show how far the legal wage floor sits from typical rent, state by state, not to describe the median renter’s budget.

Can I reuse this data?

Yes. The JSON file is free to download and reuse, including commercially, with attribution to MigrantUSA and a link to this page. HUD’s Fair Market Rents and the minimum-wage figures are US government public data; the join, the per-paycheck computation, and the ranking are ours.

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