Hours of Work to Afford an Average Lifestyle

If time is money, then how much time working does it take to afford an average lifestyle in the U.S. today? Considering eight factors: rent, utilities, medical care, food, transport apparel, recreation, and domestic vacation expenses, we have clocked up the hours it takes to afford an average lifestyle in each of the 50 states.

Key findings:

• The average American needs to work 1,372 hours per year to maintain an average lifestyle
• The average person needs to spend 77.7% of their wage to afford an average lifestyle
• Hawaii is the most expensive state in the study, the average person needs to work 1,928 hours per year (around 192 hours overtime) per year to afford an average lifestyle
• The next most expensive states are Idaho (1840 hours) and Mississippi (1628 hours)
• The most affordable state is North Dakota, the average person here spends 1042 hours per year to afford an average lifestyle (55.8% of their total working hours)
• The next two most affordable states are Connecticut (1050 hours) and West Virginia (1131 hours)

What is an average lifestyle?

Merriam-Webster defines lifestyle as "the typical way of life of an indiviual, group, or culture." In this study, we found the average individual spend on eight different factors to represent a “typical way of life”, but what are they?

According to Maslows Hierarchy of Needs, the basic psychological needs of a human being are: breathing, food, water, shelter, clothing, and sleep. The second tier of most basic needs ensures safety and security and are health, employment, property, and social ability.

Reflecting these most basic needs, we chose rent, food, medical care, utilities, and apparel to cover the bare necessities. We included transportation to ensure someone could travel to and from employment. We chose rent over mortgage repayments as mortgage repayments would assume someone already had the funds to place a deposit on a home.

In addition to these minimum expenses, we also considered the cost of recreation and one vacation per year. We chose domestic vacation over international vacation as there were an estimated 48.96 million outbound American tourists in 2023 – which is 14.7% of the 334 million population, a minority of people.

The average citizen needs to work 1,372 hours per year to maintain an average U.S. lifestyle

In the U.S. the average salary is $63,795 – but the median annual salary is around $4,000 lower at $59,384. The reason the average salary statistic is greater is because it is skewed by the very few making an extreme amount of money, so in this study, we've used the median average salary.

Considering the hourly wage and income tax rates per state, the average person needs to work 1,371.6 hours per year to afford an average lifestyle in the U.S. The average amount of time worked across the states is 1764.9 hours. This means that 77.7% of all working time goes towards just affording rent, medical care, food, utilities, transportation, recreation, apparel, and one domestic vacation per year.

The greatest proportion of all hours worked goes on rent (37.5%) – equivalent to 662 hours of work per year. An average American needs to work 220.4 hours to afford medical care (12.5%) and 128.7 hours to afford food (7.3%).

The breakdown of spending on a year's worth of work

The top five most expensive states

But where you live in the U.S. can make a huge difference. Someone on the median salary would need to work 886 more hours in the most unaffordable state in the study compared to the most affordable. If you work a 40-hour work week, this difference equates to 22 weeks of work.

1. Hawaii (1,928 hours)

According to the research, this tropical paradise is a cost-of-living nightmare. The average Hawaiian clocks in at 1736 hours per year, but to afford the average lifestyle you would need to work 192 hours overtime. The main reason Hawaii is so unaffordable is housing. On the median salary, you would need to work around 1137.3 hours alone just to afford rent. More time is spent working to afford rent in Hawaii than any other state in the study – in fact, 59.0% of all working hours just go on rent. Rent isn't the only costly expense in Hawaii. Hawaii also ranks as the most unaffordable for domestic vacation spending, utilities, and medical care.

2. Idaho (1,840 hours)

The Gem State is the 2nd most unaffordable state on the list, as the average resident has to work 51.8 hours overtime to afford an average lifestyle. The state has the most expensive utilities, Idahoans will work more hours than anyone else to afford medical care (278.5 hours compared to the 220.4 average) and their utilities (191.5 hours compared to the 127.6 average). The state also was the third most unaffordable for food (156.9 hours), and the fourth most expensive for rent (943.6 hours).

3. Mississippi (1,628 hours)

Mississippi has the lowest salary in the study, with a single household earning a median wage of $48,048 or $42,477 after tax. Although hours worked to afford rent and utilities were both above average, it was other factors that Mississippi did especially poorly on. Residents of the Magnolia state will need to work longer than anyone else to afford transportation (141.4 hours) food (168 hours) apparel (74.6 hours) and recreation expenses (70.9 hours). The state also has the second most expensive medical care (272.7 hours).

4. Montana (1,612 hours)

For every ten hours worked in Montana 9.4 hours will go towards just maintaining an average lifestyle. Montana featured in the bottom ten for affordability in half the categories. Notably utility affordability was the second worst in the study (179.9 hours), medical care was the third least affordable for medical care (261.5 hours), the state also had the 8th most expensive transportation (120.3 hours), and food (168 hours).

5. Florida (1,602 hours)

Rounding off the five states requiring the most hours of work is Florida. Nine in ten (90.1%) of hours worked in Florida go towards maintaining an average lifestyle – considerably above the 77.7% study average. The culprit for this is Florida's high housing prices. Florida has the third least affordable rent in the study, and a resident on a median wage needs to work 950.7 hours to afford an average home compared to the national average of 662 hours.

The top five least expensive states

If you are burnt out and after a slower-paced lifestyle with more leisure time, consider relocating to the following states.

1. North Dakota (1,042 hours)

In North Dakota, just 55.8% of hours worked go towards maintaining the average lifestyle – in other words, that's 824.2 hours spare after the earnings for an average lifestyle are met. There's one standout reason North Dakota tops the list for the most affordable state on the list, and that's thanks to its affordable rentals. A renter in North Dakota on the median wage needs to work 337.4 hours to maintain rent there – almost half the 662 average and the least hours in the study. Besides this, utilities, apparel, and recreation costs all require fewer hours to afford than the U.S. average.

2. Connecticut (1,050 hours)

Six in ten hours (60.1% of all time) of work in Connecticut is needed to meet the average lifestyle cost in this New England state. Impressively, Connecticut ranks in the top 10 most affordable for seven of the eight categories in the study (everything bar domestic vacation costs). The state's best ranking category is for medical care, with an annual requirement of 181.8 hours of work to afford compared to the 220.4 average.

3. Wisconsin (1,131 hours)

Third on the list is the Badger State of Wisconsin. In the midwestern state 66.3% of all hours worked go towards maintaining the average lifestyle – that's 574 hours spare a year. This is thanks to the fourth most affordable rent (439 hours) and the fact that utilities, transportation, food, and apparel are all slightly more affordable on average and take fewer hours of work to afford.

4. South Dakota (1,178 hours)

North Dakota's southern sister South Dakota also makes the top five. Around 67.2% of all working hours go to maintaining the lifestyle here (574.1 hours over the total South Dakotan working hours per year). But South Dakota is only cheaper for two out of the eight categories. This includes the 3rd most affordable rent in the study at 437.6 hours and utilities are cheaper, but that's it.

5. Kansas (1,180 hours)

Similarly, Kansas makes the top five thanks to its affordable rent and utilities. Kansas has the 5th most affordable rent (taking an average of 446.6 hours to afford), and utilities are also slightly cheaper than average. All in all, someone living in Kansas will find that 68.4% of their working time goes to maintaining an average lifestyle.

Methodology

To calculate the number of hours needed to work to afford an average lifestyle, first, the median net income of each state was divided by the average hours worked in each state. This gave us an hourly wage.

We chose rent, food, medical care, utilities, and transportation to cover the bare necessities. We chose rent over mortgage repayments as mortgage repayments would assume someone already had the funds to place a deposit on a home. We added recreation, apparel, and one domestic vacation costs to reflect a common lifestyle. We chose domestic vacation over international vacation as there were an estimated 48.96 million outbound American tourists in 2023 – which is 14.7% of the 334 million population, a minority of people.

Using estimates of the average annual expenditures per category, we then divided the average annual spends by the hourly net wage to find out how many hours it takes to afford each category. You can find the sources below:

• Median single-household income
• Income tax calculator
• Median working hours
• Domestic vacation costs per state
• Rent, Utilities, Transportation, Mortgage, Food, and Medical Care costs per state all come from

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