Livable Wage By State

For decades, the conversation centering around wages has been of utmost significance to the American workforce. While the federal minimum wage has been stagnant at $7.25 per hour since 2009, the cost of living has seen steady progressions year on year. This causes attention to turn to the concept of the 'livable wage'— the income necessary to sustain an individual or a family's basic needs without the reliance on external aid or subsidies. With discrepancies across states due to varying costs of living, it becomes vital to dissect and study the rates of livable wages in each state .Using the living wage data from MIT's Living Wage Calculator, we have collated the livable wage figures across all 50 states. 

• A prominent pattern that emerges is that coastal states tend to have higher livable wages, with Hawaii, New York, Massachusetts, California, and New Jersey leading the pack.
• Conversely, the states with the lowest livable wages are predominantly rural and situated in the Midwest and South. This lower cost of living could be due to lower housing costs and lower population density.
• Regionally, Northeastern and Western states generally require higher livable wages than Southern and Midwestern states. 
• Surprisingly, states like Oklahoma and Arkansas, known for their low cost of living, rank below the national average concerning their livable wages.