A new report offers a county-by-county breakdown of what it takes to make ends meet in North Carolina.
Patrick McHugh is research manager at the NC Budget and Tax Center, which produced the Living Income Standard report. His team collected data from all 100 counties in the state on “childcare, housing, food, transportation (and) things like that,” he said.
In Wake, North Carolina's most populous county, a family of four would need to make just over $81,000 a year to meet basic needs. In Alleghany, one of the state's least populated counties, that same family would have to bring in just under $53,000 per year.
McHugh says the figures are a minimum. Rising housing costs are putting a strain on families in urban areas, while rural families deal with lack of job opportunities or adequate childcare.
Many state and local governments around the country have raised minimum wages to $15 an hour. McHugh says that would not be enough to keep up with North Carolina’s rising cost of living.
“15 bucks an hour doesn't deliver a living income for most families in this state, and particularly places like Charlotte, and Raleigh and Durham,” he said.
North Carolina’s minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, the federal minimum adopted in 2009. State law forbids local governments from adopting a higher minimum.
Still, McHugh says many low-wage workers have seen their pay increase starting in 2020. But, he says, people in the middle are getting squeezed.
“Those types of jobs just aren't growing fast enough to allow families to move into the income spectrum that would actually deliver a real living wage,” he said.