The Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce sent out mailers and launched a website that seem to be intended to convince Tacoma voters that a $15/hour minimum wage is too much compared to the city’s cost of living. However, their figures make the opposite case.
Image from @mattsdriscoll on Twitter
Zooming in…
If you look close, you'll see that the Chamber figures that “apartment rental” in Tacoma is $1032/month. So: what wage does a Tacoma worker need to afford the rent?
The standard for housing affordability is paying no more than 30% of your gross monthly income to rent. That means you’d need a full-time job paying $19.85/hour to afford the rent in Tacoma. (1)
On the other hand, if you’re paid the statewide minimum wage of $9.47/hour, you need to work almost 84 hours a week to afford rent in Tacoma. Again, this is according to the Chamber of Commerce’s own info. (2)
In other words: the case for higher wages is so strong that even opponents can’t help but support it!
Think they’re about to launch a $19.85now initiative?
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Footnotes
(1) Here’s the math on $19.85/hour:
- $1032/month = $12,384/year in rent.
- $12,384 / 30% = $41,280/year to afford that rent at 30% of gross income
- $41,280 a year / 2080 hours a year for a full-time worker = $19.85/hour
(2) Here’s the math on 84 hours/week:
- $1032/month = $12,384/year in rent.
- $12,384 / 30% = $41,280/year to afford that rent at 30% of gross income
- $41,280 a year / $9.47 an hour = 83.8 hours a week for a worker paid the statewide minimum wage to afford rent.