faith in action

Everybody’s got the right to live: Living wages and housing

The typical full-time worker earning the federal minimum wage — stuck at $7.25 per hour since 2009 — would have to work 122 hours each week of the year to afford a two-bedroom apartment or 99 hours each week for a one-bedroom apartment. That's neither possible nor moral.


Our partners at the National Low Income Housing Coalition released their annual report this week on the affordability of housing across the U.S. The report’s title, “Out of Reach,” accurately sums up their findings: in every state and nearly every county and metropolitan area within each state, workers earning the minimum wage are unable to afford the rental costs for a modest apartment.

Using what the housing coalition terms the “housing wage,” workers would need to earn a minimum of anywhere between $13.84 per hour in Arkansas to $36.13 per hour in Hawaii to afford a modest rental apartment.

This reality lies in stark contrast to the vision God has for us. This is not what the realm of God looks like.

Take the parable of the workers in the vineyard as an example. (Matthew 20:1-16) Jesus demonstrates that vineyard owners must pay their workers a living wage so they can live an abundant life.

That’s why Methodists have worked for economic and worker justice since the earliest days of the Methodist movement.

Over a century ago, the Methodist Episcopal Church, a predecessor to The United Methodist Church, proclaimed its support for a “living wage in every industry” in the 1908 Social Creed.

And today, The United Methodist Church “reaffirms its historic support for the living wage movement and calls upon businesses and governments to adopt policies to ensure employees are paid sufficient wages to afford shelter, food, clothing, health care, and other basic expenses, according to the local costs of living.” (Book of Resolutions, 4101)

While supporting higher wages is essential, as the housing coalition’s report points out, it is not sufficient by itself. That’s why we continue to advocate both for higher wages and for policies that would increase access to affordable housing.

This summer, the U.S. Congress will consider its annual discretionary funding bills. These appropriations bills outline the specific budget priorities of the federal government. We must view these bills, like the overall federal budget, as moral documents. They reflect who and what we value as a nation.

We will continue to advocate for increased funding for housing vouchers and rental assistance programs. And we’ll fight against proposals — including initiatives in the executive branch — that would rescind affordable housing funds or place additional requirements, penalties or increased rents on families already struggling to afford housing.

And together, we will continue to work for the day when every worker earns a living wage and has access to affordable housing for themselves and their family. This is a vision not unlike that described in scripture by Micah whose prophetic imagination conjured a day when everyone “shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid.” (Micah 4:4)

May our work make it so.