A full-time Ohio worker needs to be making at least $23.82 an hour to be able to afford a “modest” two-bedroom apartment, according to a new report released this week.
This is slightly more than a 5% increase from last year — which was $22.51, according to National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio’s annual Out of Reach report.
The Housing Wage is an estimate of the hourly wage full-time workers must make to afford a rental home at HUD’s Fair Market Rent without spending more than 30% of their income.
Ohio’s Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,238, meaning a household must earn $49,537 annually to cover rent and utilities, according to the report.
The state’s Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $996, according to the report. Ohio has nearly 1.6 million renter households.
The report showed the average Ohio renter earns $19.59 an hour, $4.23 less than what they need to be making to afford a two-bedroom apartment.
The Housing Wage gap was $1.57 an hour in 2020, meaning the Housing Wage has increased by 169% in the past six years, the report said.
“Renters’ incomes shot up in the early 2020s, but then rent increases eventually swamped the wage gains,” COHHIO Executive Director Amy Riegel said in a statement.
“And it’s not just housing. The cost of food, transportation, healthcare, childcare, and education is continuing to rise while people working in low wage jobs are getting squeezed.”
Of the 10 most common jobs in Ohio, only general operations managers and registered nurses pay more than $23.82 an hour, according to the report.
Fast food workers, retail salespeople, stockers, laborers, home health aides, and cashiers earn a median hourly wage less than $20 an hour, according to the report.
Ohio’s minimum wage is $11 an hour for non-tipped workers — meaning a minimum wage worker would have to work 87 hours per week to afford a two-bedroom rental and 70 hours to afford a one-bedroom rental.
Economic Policy Institute modeling shows 616,700 Ohio workers would get a raise due to a state minimum wage increase of $15 an hour by 2030, according to a report by Policy Matters Ohio published earlier this year.
Union County had the highest Housing Wage, where full-time workers need to make at least $27.56 an hour, the report showed.
Urban areas in the state were not far behind. The Housing Wage is $27.50 an hour in Columbus, $26.02 in Cincinnati, $24.60 in Cleveland, and $24.48 in Dayton.
Ohio has a shortage of 266,000 affordable and available rental units, according to the 2026 Gap Report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition and COHHIO.
“While we’re helping many families get stably housed, even more are falling into homelessness every day,” Fred Berry, president and CEO of Humility of Mary Housing in Akron, said in a statement.
“The lack of affordable housing is increasing the risk of homelessness and making it harder to get out of homelessness.”
There were 12,196 people experiencing homelessness in Ohio last year, according to HUD’s annual Homelessness Assessment Report.
Only one in four eligible households receives federal housing assistance, NLIHC President and CEO Renee M. Willis said.
“To meaningfully address the affordable housing crisis, the federal government must adequately fund housing programs in a way that would expand rental assistance and both preserve and increase the supply of deeply affordable homes for those with the lowest incomes,” she said in a statement.
“We have the resources to invest in expanding housing solutions that provide stable homes for the lowest-income people in our country. We just need the political will to do so.”
Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on X or on Bluesky.
Originally published on ohiocapitaljournal.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.
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