Social media has been buzzing with claims that the U.S. minimum wage should be $66 an hour to keep up with how expensive the world currently is โ namely, soaring housing costs.ย
EMBED: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNTQ5_lxfHm/ย
The argument hinges on the fact that in 1968, the median home price was around $24,700, while itโs currently about $443,000. In 1968, the federal minimum wage was $1.60 an hour. Today, itโs $7.25โฆand has been stuck at this figure since 2009.ย
In Q2 2025, full-time U.S. workers earned a median of $1,196 per week. Thatโs $57,408 a year. To qualify for a mortgage on a house that is the current median price of $443,000, workers would actually need to earn about $130,000 yearly (this is following the rule that housing costs should be around 28% of your monthly income).ย
Itโs clear wages are not keeping up with the increase in costs of living. Americans are seriously struggling, and they are absolutely making it known.ย
@fmsmith319 Millennials and Gen Z have a cost of living crisis
ย
@grantchatter This Is the Real Reason So Many Americans Are Giving Up #prepper #costoflivingcrisis #american #prepping #fyp
โMaking $100,000 doesnโt get you anywhere these days,โ one TikToker said.
If workers needed to earn about $130,000 yearly to afford the median house, that would come out to about $66-$67 per hour.
So what does it mean for workers struggling to make ends meet?
To unpack these questions, Allwork.Space spoke with economist Yoni Blumberg, co-lead of The New STL Economy Playbook, who offered a nuanced perspective on the debate.
Is $66 an Hour Realistic?
Blumberg calls the $66 figure โmisleading,โ noting that it is based mainly on housing prices, which have risen faster than general inflation.ย
โStrictly on inflation, the minimum wage today would be closer to $15 an hour ($14.90),โ he explained. โThat calculation uses inflation as a broad measure, which blends costs for basic needs like housing and healthcare with costs for things like electronics that have become cheaper.โ
He points out that while housing and other core costs have surged, using housing alone to determine minimum wage ignores larger economic realities.ย
โIn 1968, one full-time paycheck could cover bills, keep a roof overhead, and leave enough to buy a home, own a car, take vacations, and send kids to college. Today, most families cannot cover basic expenses on one income,โ he told us.
What Needs to Change?
There is no one solution.ย
The growing disconnect between wages and the cost of basic necessities, especially housing, has created a structural crisis that policy alone canโt solve overnight.
From 1979 to 2025, productivity grew by 86%, while pay for production and nonsupervisory workers (a proxy for typical worker compensation) increased by 32% โ meaning productivity grew roughly 2.7 times as much as pay.
At the same time, median rent has more than doubled in the last two decades, and the share of housing purchased/taken up by investors rose to 27% in Q1.ย
With costs skyrocketing and wages trailing far behind, pressure is mounting for bold, structural interventions that go beyond surface-level fixes.
โWe can expand access to unions and collective bargaining, raise the minimum wage and anchor it to the cost of living, address the factors driving housing prices up so fast, and adopt permanently affordable forms of housing,โ Blumberg said.
He also advocates banning speculative investor purchasing, which drives prices up, and points to worker ownership as a powerful tool. โWorker ownership alone is associated with a 33% higher median wage income for employees at employee-owned firms.โ
While the viral $66 minimum wage number captures real frustrations about affordability, the actual solution requires a balanced approach.ย
This debate on social media highlights a painful truth: wages have not remotely kept pace with the cost of living, especially for housing, healthcare, and childcare.ย
Meaningful solutions will require systemic change โ from rethinking how wealth is built to restructuring labor, housing, and corporate ownership to ensure that work once again provides a path to stability and prosperity.
