This is How Long You Need to Work to Live Comfortably in Every State

From HowMuch.net

Do you make enough money to enjoy a comfortable life? Or are you just scraping by? If it feels like you can’t ever truly get ahead, then you aren’t alone according to our latest map on the cost of living across the U.S.

Hawaii is the single most difficult state for workers to get ahead, requiring $96.1K to enjoy a comfortable life and 91-hour workweeks to get there.

The states where a comfortable life is within reach stretch across the South. Mississippi is the most affordable at $40.4K. Making that much money would require average workers to clock 53 hours.

Kansas stands out as a reasonably affordable place to enjoy the good life ($41.7K) without spending too much time on the job (46 hours).

There isn’t a single state in the country where an average worker can enjoy a comfortable living on 40 hours or less of work per week. North Dakota has the shortest required minimum hours at 45.

We combined a few different datasets to create our visualization. First, we figured out the median wage for workers in 2018 in each state from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. We also used numbers from the BLS to calculate average annual consumer expenditures, adding a nice 20% bump to each state’s average to represent comfortable living. Then, we divided that figure by the number of earners the average household has to obtain the annual expenditure per earner. That amount was adjusted to each state’s cost of living using MERIC’s data, giving us the number of hours needed to make that wage. States with darker shades of purple require a higher wage to live comfortably, and larger green circles indicate longer workweeks.

Top 10 States Where it is Cheapest to Enjoy a Comfortable Living

1. Mississippi: $40,349 (53 hours)
2. Oklahoma: $41,113 (48 hours)
3. Arkansas: $41,495 (52 hours)
4. Kansas: $41,733 (46 hours)
5. Tennessee: $41,877 (48 hours)
6. New Mexico: $42,354 (50 hours)
7. Alabama: $42,497 (50 hours)
8. Missouri: $42,545 (47 hours)
9. Michigan: $42,832 (46 hours)
10. Georgia: $43,023 (48 hours)

Top 10 States Where it Costs the Most to Enjoy a Comfortable Living

1. Hawaii: $96,120 (91 hours)
2. Washington, D.C.: $78,310 (44 hours)
3. California: $66,754 (63 hours)
4. Oregon: $65,417 (66 hours)
5. New York: $64,462 (57 hours)
6. Massachusetts: $62,218 (51 hours)
7. Maryland: $61,836 (55 hours)
8. Alaska: $60,881 (51 hours)
9. Connecticut: $59,783 (51 hours)
10. New Jersey: $59,401 (54 hours)

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