While rents have been rising, wages have stagnated, making affordable housing an increasingly scarce commodity. The National Low Income Housing Coalition, an advocacy group, calculated how many hours of work at the minimum wage would be required to afford a two-bedroom unit at Fair Market Rent—the government's measure for the monthly cost of a "modest, non luxury rental unit" in a specific area, plus utilities. In no state was a 40-hour work week enough.Nationally, the NLIHC calculates that a household needs to earn $37,960 in 2012 to afford a two-bedroom unit at the national average Fair Market Rate of $949 a month. By comparison, someone earning the current federal minimum wage, working 40 hours a week, earns only $15,080 a year.
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