The percentage of American full-time minimum-wage workers who can afford to rent a one-bedroom apartment in any U.S. state without being what the government calls "burdened" is so vanishingly small — less than one percent — that it rounds down to zero. That's the conclusion of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a lobbying group that pushes for more low-income housing and also reports that no full-time minimum-wage worker can afford a two-bedroom apartment in any U.S. state. Researchers define "afford" by people's ability to pay 30 percent of their income or less on the cost of housing, which may include their mortgage, insurance and taxes. Those who are severely cost-burdened must use 50 percent or more of their income just to cover housing. The cost of housing has risen so significantly that even a one-bedroom is out of reach everywhere except in 12 counties located in rural Washington, Arizona and Oregon, reports Laura Bliss for CityLab.

Bliss notes that "more than 76 percent of renter households reside in a county or metro area where it takes more than 60 hours per week of full-time, minimum-wage work to reasonably afford even a one-bedroom unit. In California, the nation's most populous state, it would take 92 hours. In Virginia, it would take 109." The federal minimum wage is $7.25. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, "minimum wage workers tend to be young" and unmarried and often live with parents or otherwise share housing. BLS also reported in 2016 that they make up a small percentage of the overall labor force: "2.2 million workers with wages at or below the federal minimum made up 2.7 percent of all hourly paid workers." Columnist Tim Worstall at Forbes contends that minimum-wage workers have arguably never been able to afford housing. "If we want housing to be cheaper we should build more of it," he writes.