One popular guideline is the 30% rent rule, which says to spend around 30% of your gross income on rent. So if you earn $4,000 per month before taxes, you could spend up to about $1,200 per month on rent. This is a solid guideline, but it's not one-size-fits-all advice.
$15/hour is more than likely not going to be enough to rent your own apartment, pay bills (especially if you have a car payment or other debt), and save. You might be able to make it paycheck to paycheck, but won't have lots of time to pursue other skills or means of income.
Here's an idea of the ideal rent for various salaries, based on the 30% rule. On a $30,000 a year salary, your ideal rent price is $750. On a $40,000 a year salary, your ideal rent price is $1,000.
California reigns as top state for small cities where $1,500 stretches the least. This year, California cities stood out on both of our lists of big and small cities where a monthly rent budget of $1,500 doesn't go far.
If you make $15 per hour, your Monthly salary would be $2,600. This result is obtained by multiplying your base salary by the amount of hours, week, and months you work in a year, assuming you work 40 hours a week. How much tax do I pay if I make $15 per hour? What is the income tax on $2,600 a month?
Cost of living data from the Economic Policy Institute shows that in all fifty states—in both rural and urban areas—$15 an hour is the minimum wage that a single adult working full-time will need by 2024 to cover basic living expenses— including rent, food, transportation, health care, and taxes.
For example, if you're making $20 an hour, assuming you work a standard 40-hour workweek, your monthly income is $3,200. Based on the 50% needs category, you should aim to spend no more than 30% of yours income on rent, which comes out to $960 per month.
Earning $15 per hour results in a weekly income of $600. Assuming you work a full-time job, which typically involves 40 hours per week, simply multiply your hourly wage of $15 by the 40 hours. This straightforward salary calculation multiplied by worked hours ($15 x 40 hours) gives you your total weekly earnings.
“Most of us can't do the math in our heads. If we could, we'd realize that $15 an hour amounts to only $31,200 a year, assuming full-time work—about half of the U.S. median income and a painfully small amount for living and raising children in most American cities.” It can be painfully small outside of cities, too.
You must make $5,000 per month to afford a $1,500 monthly rent.
Based on a standard work week of 40 hours, a full-time employee works 2,080 hours per year (40 hours a week x 52 weeks a year). So if an employee makes $15 an hour working 40 hours a week, they make about $31,200 (15 multiplied by 2,080).
The 30% rule says that no more than 30% of your monthly gross income should go toward your rent. According to this rule, if you make $4,000 a month, you should spend no more than $1,200 per month on rent. Sticking to the 30% rule helps ensure you have enough money left over to save or put toward other expenses.
If you make $17 an hour, then you make around $35,360 a year assuming you work 52 weeks a year, at 40 hours a week. This means you can spend around $884 a month on Rent. Using the 30% Rule. Using the 3X rule (33% of your monthly income), you could afford around $982 a month.
40x Rent Rule
To find maximum rent using this rule, divide the household's annual gross income by 40. For example, a household that earns $80,000 per year can afford a maximum monthly rent of $2,000 (80,000 ÷ 40 = 2,000).
At $20 an hour, a full-time worker earns a little more than $40,000 a year — it's not a lavish lifestyle, but enough to support a family, Wartzman says.
If you make $16 an hour, your monthly salary would be $2,773.33.
Further in many places $15 per hour would not be a sufficient living wage for a single person. Even without children, living wages in Hawaii and Washington D.C. are $19.43 and $20.49, respectively.
If you make $35,000 a year, your hourly salary would be $16.83.
While a $15 federal minimum wage would certainly improve the lives of many low wage workers across the country, it simply isn't enough to get by in many American cities. Here are 25 places where making ends meet at $15/hour would be incredibly difficult if not downright impossible.
$15/hr is $120 per 8 hr day.