How many jobs do you need to pay rent in L.A.?
It's no secret that Southern California housing is not cheap. But how many jobs do you need to afford rent? Real estate website Zillow crunched the numbers -- and they are startling. Joy Benedict takes an exclusive look.
Jacob Marker and Matt Garrison share an apartment just to make ends meet in North Hollywood.
"It's two bedrooms. You can see it's not the Taj Mahal," said Marker.
But for this Valley barista making minimum wage, having his own apartment just isn't an option.
"It's definitely rough knowing that the way I make my money and how hard I work for it will never be enough," said Marker.
As a video game designer, Matt Garrison fares a little better financially, but he has had at least one roommate for the last seven years as he tries to save for the future.
"The amount I'm paid for barely would cover the apartment if I were to be here alone," said Garrison. "It would barely cover rent."
This tale of two roommates is far from unique. As a new study by Zillow says, in order to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles, a renter making minimum wage would need 2.7 full-time jobs -- that's 108 hours of work every week.
But Los Angeles actually fares better than the national average, and most cities in the study.
"In Austin it would take a little over five full-time minimum-wage workers to afford a two-bedroom rental," said Zillow economist Jeff Tucker. "I think what this goes to show is that local policy measures can make a really big difference in raising people's incomes to help deal with that high cost of living."
The study compared minimum wages in the nation's 50 largest cities versus the average cost of a rental. What they found is that cities that still use the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour are the hardest to live in.
"Austin and then Atlanta are the two most unaffordable. And that's because these are two cities that are pretty expensive, growing-in-demand cities that still have that federal minimum wage," said Tucker.
The city that fared the best is Fresno, Calif.
"It's getting some of those California policies pushing up the minimum wage, but Fresno itself, and the Central Valley in general, is one of the last affordable parts of California," said Tucker.
"Affordable" is not a word usually associated with Los Angeles. With the average price of a two-bedroom renting for $2,100 a month, living alone just isn't an option for many, including for Jacob Marker. But he says he'll just keep working hard, hoping something gives so he can finally get some space.
"In a perfect world, we would all be able to do what we want to do and provide for ourselves," said Marker.
For more information: Minimum wage workers need three roommates or four jobs to afford a two-bedroom rental - Zillow
