This is how much you need to make to live alone in Florida, new report says
Living alone in Florida is expensive, a new report shows.
The price of essentials like gas and groceries has increased by 3.2% nationwide in the past year, according to the Consumer Price Index report from July 2023. That means that the amount of money required to live and work in the U.S. has gone up, too.
A new study from personal finance site GoBanking calculated the amount of money a single person needs to make to earn a living wage in each state.
Here’s where Florida stands.
Florida living wage
In Florida, a single person must make $57,064 per year to cover all of their expenses.
This places Florida 30th on the ranking of states by income requirements. Hawaii is the most expensive state, with $112,411 required to earn a living wage. Mississippi has the lowest living wage out of the 50 states at $45,906.
According to ZipRecruiter, an online job marketplace, the average salary in Florida is $48,620.
What about South Florida?
Prices and wages tend to be higher in South Florida than the state average.
The average salary in Miami is $54,462, according to ZipRecruiter.
Not only that, but the Miami metro area in August posted the highest cost-of-living increase among the nation’s biggest 14 metropolitan areas.
The region has held that distinction since December 2022, according to the latest Consumer Price Index report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The housing market is the key driver of South Florida’s high cost of living. In August, home rents jumped 15.3% compared to last year, and the cost of buying a home increased by 14.3%.
Methodology
To determine the living wage required in each state, GoBanking researchers used the most recent Consumer Expenditure Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to calculate the annual cost of necessities based on data from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center’s 2023 Q1 Cost of Living Data Series.
Researchers then doubled the cost of necessities to get a living wage that factors in extra spending and savings.
10 states with the highest living wages
Hawaii: $112,411
Massachusetts: $87,909
California: $80,013
New York: $73,226
Alaska: $71,570
Maryland: $67,915
Vermont: $65,923
Oregon: $65,763
Washington: $65,640
New Jersey: $64,463
This story was originally published September 14, 2023 at 11:47 AM.