A National Crisis of Affordability

In Illinois, the average worker working at minimum wage ($12 per hour) would have to work 64 hours per week to afford a modest 1-bedroom rental home. To afford a 2-bedroom home while working full time, a worker would need to make $22.80 per hour - an annual salary of $47,434. For many workers across the state, income has not kept up with the cost of rent. The impact of job and wage instability during the COVID-19 pandemic further illustrated the precarious nature of the connection between work and housing in Illinois.

This precarious nature is felt nationwide - the National Low-Income Housing Coalition ranks Illinois 20th amongst states with regards to the wage needed to afford housing. The national wage needed to afford a 2-bedroom rental home is $25.82, $3.02 higher than that needed in Illinois. Nationwide, more than one third of workers are paid median wages that are less than the wages needed to rent a 1-bedroom unit working 40 hours per week. Eleven of the twenty-five largest occupations in the United States pay less than the wage needed to rent a one-bedroom housing unit (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Large Occupations with Wage Below the National Housing Wage (2022)

2 Bedroom Housing Wage

1 Bedroom Housing Wage

Secretaries and Administrative Assistants

Financial Clerks

Other Production Occupations

Other Office and Administrative Support Workers

Information and Record Clerks

Material Moving Workers

Building Cleaning and Pest Care Aides

Home Health and Personal Care Aides

Cooks and Food Preparation Workers

Given the combined impact of the national housing affordability crisis, escalation of rents, and the greater instability brought by the coronavirus pandemic, this Issue Brief analyzes trends in wages for artists and creative workers in Illinois and how artists and creative workers have fared with regards to housing affordability between 2019 and 2021. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, these trends are of particular importance, as rents continue to rise in many housing markets throughout the state.