Hawaiʻi has highest gap between wages, rent required for a 2-bedroom

Hawaiʻi’s rent is so high, though, it is inaccessible to the majority of residents working in the state’s largest occupations, according to the 2019 “Out of Reach” report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group for affordable housing.

Hawaiʻi is not only the most expensive state for two-bedroom renters to live in, according to the recently released report, but holds the distinction of having the greatest gap between what the average renter makes and what a tenant needs to occupy a two-bedroom unit at fair-market rent.

A renter in Hawaiʻi needs to make at least $36.82 per hour, or $76,577 annually, to afford a two-bedroom residence at $1,914 a month, according to the report. The average renter in the state, however, only makes $16.68 per hour—a gap of $20 an hour.

At the state’s minimum wage of $10.10 per hour, a Hawaiʻi renter would have to work 111 hours per week, or work 2.8 jobs, in order to afford a one-bedroom residence, according to the coalition’s analysis of Hawaiʻi. To afford rent for a two-bedroom unit at minimum wage, a renter would need to work 146 hours per week, or work 3.6 jobs.

Nicole Woo, senior policy analyst for the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice, said Hawaiʻi has been at the top of the “Out of Reach” report for many years, with a higher percentage of renters than the national average.

“We have very high housing costs,” said Woo. “We have the most overcrowded housing according to U.S. Census data, the highest homeless rate in the nation. That’s all connected to (the fact) that our housing is so expensive.”

She noted the Hawaiʻi State Legislature’s failure to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour in this year’s session, as several other states have done, which exacerbated the problem.