Californians have to work extra days to afford rent, groceries. Here’s how much
Hourly wages may have risen nationwide since the height of the 2008 economic crisis, but that doesn’t mean salaries have kept up with inflation rates.
California is among the 10 states where residents have to work the most extra days to afford the basics, according to financial technology company InvestorsObserver.
“People nationwide now have to work up to 25 extra days a year just to cover rent, groceries and save for a used car — time stolen from vacations, kids’ soccer games, and weekends off,” InvestorsObserver researchers said in a March 5 article.
“More Americans are no longer trading time for progress,” the researchers said. “They are trading time for the bare minimum of existence.”
Here’s how hard Californians have to work to afford rent and other essentials:
How many more days do Californians have to work?
Californians had to work 75.3 hours a week to afford rent and groceries and save up for a used car in 2025, according to the InvestorsObserver study.
In contrast, California residents needed to work 59.5 hours per week to cover the same necessities in 2007, the study found.
The Golden State was the seventh most expensive state in the nation based on the total number of workdays needed to afford rent, groceries and used car savings, InvestorsObserver found.
The Golden State trailed behind Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
“California ... not only has the biggest change between 2007 (and) 2025 but also is among the states where people have to spend the most hours just to cover the basics,” analysts said in the study.
That fact “reflects the persistent affordability challenges that have driven policy debates and migration patterns for years,” InvestorsObservor said. “The state’s high wages have not kept pace with housing costs that continue to rise in major metropolitan areas.”
How hard do Californians have to work to afford rent?
California ranked third among the top 10 states where Americans need the most extra workdays annually “just to afford rent,” Investors Observors said.
Californians had to work 15.8 extra days — the equivalent of three full work weeks — to afford rent, InvestorsObserver analysts said, “despite boasting one of the highest average hourly wages in the country at $40.93.
“The Golden State’s notoriously expensive housing market continues extracting an ever-growing time tax from its workforce,” InvestorsObserver said.
California was No. 5 on InvestorsObservor’s list of the U.S. states where residents work the most extra hours to afford rent and food and save money for a used car.
How much is a living wage in California?
Most Californians need to earn substantially more than minimum wage to cover basic living expenses, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
While California’s minimum wage is $16.90 an hour — nearly $9 higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 — it falls short of what many residents need to make ends meet.
A single adult with no children would need to earn about $30.48 an hour to afford basic living expenses in California, The Sacramento Bee previously reported. That’s nearly double the statewide minimum wage.
Meanwhile, a single parent with three children would need to earn $90.66 an hour — more than five times the state minimum wage — to cover expenses including food, child care, transportation and medical costs.
Workers in these 10 US states have to grind to survive
According to InvestorsObserver, these were the 10 most expensive states for workers looking to afford rent, groceries and used car savings:
- 1. Hawaii
- 2. New Jersey
- 3. Maryland
- 4. Delaware
- 5. Massachusetts
- 6. Rhode Island
- 7. California
- 8. Florida
- 9. Nevada
- 10. Connecticut
How did InvestorsObserver come up with rankings?
InvestorsObservers said it analyzed hourly earnings compared to three essential costs — housing, groceries and used cars — across all 50 states from 2007 to 2025.
Data came from sources including Black Book, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
