American families living in half the country — 25 states — need to earn about $30 an hour, or roughly $53,000 per year after taxes, to make ends meet, according to an analysis from all-in-one finance app platform MoneyLion.
Hawaii requires the highest hourly wage of $69.43 to live, MoneyLion found after calculating each state’s costs of “necessities,” including housing, groceries, utilities, healthcare and transportation, using data from the 2024 Consumer Expenditure Survey. In zero states can a family of four get by earning less than $20 an hour, it said. A family of four is defined as a married couple with children, the oldest child age 6 to 17, it said.
The numbers contrast with the federal hourly minimum wage, which remains stuck at the 2009 rate of $7.25, and the highest state minimum wage this year of $17.95 in Washington D.C., technically not a state at all, according to Federal Reserve data.
“These numbers highlight just how challenging it can be for families earning at or near the minimum wage in their state,” MoneyLion said.
Hawaii tops the list with $69.43 an hour, or $110,782 after taxes for the year, to cover annual grocery costs of $12,505, housing costs of $62,903 andhealthcare costsof $10,321, MoneyLion said.
