Hourly wages needed to afford a two-bedroom apartment in California 2021-23, by metro
In 2023, Santa Cruz-Watsonville, California, households needed an hourly wage of 63.33 U.S. dollars to afford the rent of a two-bedroom apartment. San Francisco had one of the least affordable two-bedroom apartments, as a household would have to earn at least 61.31 U.S. dollars hourly to afford rent . These figures are considerably higher than the average minimum wage, which is in place in many states. There was no state in which a minimum wage worker could afford rent for the average two-bedroom apartment, if they only worked 40 hours a week.
