Working Full-Time Still Isn’t Enough To Live Alone In NJ

Can we talk about how absolutely wild it is that having a full-time job doesn't necessarily mean you can afford a one-bedroom apartment anymore?

Because apparently, “just get a job” was not the life hack we thought it was.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition's 2026 Out of Reach report found that more than half of U.S. wage earners cannot afford a modest one-bedroom rental while working full-time. Nationally, a worker needs to make $29.19 an hour to afford a modest one-bedroom without spending more than 30% of their income on housing.

New Jersey Makes Living Alone Even More Expensive

And then there's New Jersey.

NLIHC's New Jersey data puts the state's one-bedroom Housing Wage at $33.49 an hour, with a one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,742. That's an annual income of nearly $70,000 just to meet that 30% affordability standard.

Meanwhile, the same data shows the median hourly wage across all occupations in New Jersey at $28.

So yes, you can work full-time and still not make enough to comfortably afford a basic apartment by yourself. You can thank NJ's overall cost of living for that.

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So What Are People Supposed to Do?

Get a roommate. Move farther away. Take on a second job. Spend way more than 30% of your paycheck on rent.

None of those options exactly sound like financial freedom.

And honestly, that's the part that bothers me most.

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People are working. They're earning paychecks. They're doing what they're supposed to do.

Yet for a lot of people, having a place of their own has somehow become a luxury.

Working full-time should mean you can afford more than just a bedroom in somebody else's apartment.