The word “afford” is doing a lot of work there. Is paying 40% of gross income for rent “too much”? 35%? 30%? What if utilities were included vs not? 10th percentile rent? 25th percentile?
Usually 36-40% is the standard. Around $1000 assuming $15 minimum wage and full time employment.
There’s already a standard for this with things like Section 8 vouchers. It’s hilarious how many HN commenters think these are intractable, impossible problems.
You realize that’s got the direction wrong? “Given the affordability of housing somewhere within a pretty huge circle, what must the local minimum wage be?”
The federal government already tallies prevailing rent for every US city/county.
If the policy goal was to set minimum wage to a 40% of full time gross income, and the prevailing rent for basic housing is $1000/mo, 1000/40%=$2500, or $15/hr. You can rent an apartment for $450 in the small town I grew up in. Same calculation would be $6.75/hr.
Most employers use a similar methodology to set travel expense thresholds, etc.
A system like this could be subsidized by tax credits on the payroll side.
