While last Friday's boost in the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour will help working Americans on the lower end of the pay scale, it still doesn't allow those people to afford decent housing.
According to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition's annual "Out of Reach" report, a household must earn $17.84 an hour to afford the national average two-bedroom "fair market rent" (FMR) of $928 a month.
According to the Coalition, "In no county in the U.S. can a full-time minimum wage worker afford even a one-bedroom apartment at the FMR."
With a minimum wage of $8.06 an hour, Vermont is one of 14 states with a minimum higher than the national.
Still, the gap for Vermonters between the minimum wage and fair market rent is substantial.
Read more about the gap in VHFA's "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" (824 KB; PDF), published in April.