{
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  "title": "Housing on LLBBL Blog",
  "icon": "https://avatars.micro.blog/avatars/2023/40/125738.jpg",
  "home_page_url": "https://llbbl.blog/",
  "feed_url": "https://llbbl.blog/feed.json",
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      {
        "id": "http://llbbl.micro.blog/2026/04/13/what-would-minimum-wage-be.html",
        "title": "What Would Minimum Wage Be If It Kept Up With Housing?",
        "content_html": "<p>I pulled the data and verified the math. The answer is&hellip; not great.</p>\n<h2 id=\"the-numbers-were-working-with\">The Numbers We&rsquo;re Working With</h2>\n<p>In 1950, the federal minimum wage was <strong>$0.75 per hour</strong>. A median owner-occupied single-family home cost <strong>$7,354</strong>.</p>\n<p>In 2026, the federal minimum wage is <strong>$7.25 per hour</strong> — unchanged since 2009. The median U.S. family home price is <strong>$429,129</strong>.</p>\n<p>These numbers come from multiple independent sources. Let&rsquo;s see what happens when we put them side by side.</p>\n<h2 id=\"the-home-labor-index\">The Home-Labor Index</h2>\n<p>I&rsquo;m using a simple metric here: how many hours of minimum-wage work does it take to buy a median home? No mortgages, no interest rates, no down payments; just raw labor hours versus home price.</p>\n<p><strong>1950:</strong></p>\n<ul>\n<li>$7,354 ÷ $0.75/hr = <strong>9,805 hours</strong></li>\n<li>At 40 hrs/wk × 52 wks = 2,080 hrs/yr</li>\n<li>That&rsquo;s <strong>4.71 years</strong> of full-time minimum-wage work</li>\n</ul>\n<p><strong>2026:</strong></p>\n<ul>\n<li>$429,129 ÷ $7.25/hr = <strong>59,191 hours</strong></li>\n<li>Same 2,080 hrs/yr</li>\n<li>That&rsquo;s <strong>28.46 years</strong> of full-time minimum-wage work</li>\n</ul>\n<p>In 1950, a minimum-wage worker needed under 5 years of gross income to cover a median home. In 2026, that same worker needs over 28 years. The ratio has gotten roughly <strong>six times worse</strong>.</p>\n<h2 id=\"so-what-should-minimum-wage-be\">So What Should Minimum Wage Be?</h2>\n<p>If we wanted to preserve the same home-purchasing power that a minimum-wage worker had in 1950, we can work backwards:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>2026 Median Home Price ÷ 1950 Home-Labor Index</li>\n<li>$429,129 ÷ 9,805 hours = <strong>$43.77 per hour</strong></li>\n</ul>\n<p>We can verify this another way. The 1950 ratio was 4.714 years of income to buy a home. To maintain that ratio in 2026:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>$429,129 ÷ 4.714 = $91,029/yr required income</li>\n<li>$91,029 ÷ 2,080 hours = <strong>$43.76/hr</strong></li>\n</ul>\n<p>Both methods land in the same place. To have the same relationship between minimum wage and housing that existed in 1950, the federal minimum wage would need to be roughly <strong>$43.77 per hour</strong></p>\n<p>You don&rsquo;t need a PhD to look at these numbers and see the wage gap disparity. The gap between wages at the bottom and the cost of the most basic economic asset, a home, has grown dramatically. That the gap exists isn&rsquo;t debatable.</p>\n<p>The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 since 2009. That&rsquo;s 17 years without an increase. Meanwhile, median home prices have roughly doubled in that same period.</p>\n<p>If we cared about the citizens, we&rsquo;d need to 6x the minmum wage while also working at more affordable housing for the middle class.</p>\n",
        "date_published": "2026-04-13T14:00:00-05:00",
        "url": "https://llbbl.blog/2026/04/13/what-would-minimum-wage-be.html",
        "tags": ["Economics","Housing","Minimum wage","Data"]
      }
  ]
}