PHOENIX – According to a recent report from advocates of affordable housing, full-time workers with minimum wages in no state can afford a two-bedroom apartment, and with housing costs skyrocketing in Arizona, many workers are struggling. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s annual Out of Reach report, 93% of US counties also cannot afford a single room for these workers. In Arizona, workers would have to spend 73 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom apartment. Excluding weekends, that’s 14.6 hours a day. Still, that’s better than the national average of 97 hours a week, the report said. The report defines affordability as the hourly wage a full-time employee must earn to keep no more than 30% of their income on rent. Workers would have to earn $ 24.90 per hour for a two bedroom rental and $ 20.40 per hour for a one bedroom rental. The average hourly worker makes $ 18.78 an hour and the state minimum wage is $ 7.25 an hour, unchanged since 2009. In 2019, 13.5% of Arizona nationals lived below the federal poverty line of $ 25,750 (for a family of four), compared to 10.5% nationally. This year, the federal poverty line is $ 26,500. Even in the best of circumstances, rent is unaffordable for most low-wage workers, the report said. In Phoenix, the median monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $ 1,449 – up 12% from last July – according to Zumper, who analyzes active housing listings. Groups advocating a higher minimum wage, such as Fight for $ 15 and the Poor People’s Campaign, are calling for lawmakers’ attention by protesting on the streets and on strike across the country. Senator Bernie Sanders, D-Vermont, passed a wage increase bill in early 2021, but no progress has been made. “In most places, $ 15 an hour is not a living wage,” said Rev. Dr. Campaign for the Poor, William J. Barber II, told Cronkite News. “But it’s more than double where the ground is now. And we know everyone gets up when you lift from below. So let’s say $ 15 an hour now and index it to inflation so that the wage floor increases with the cost of the things everyone needs to survive. ”Earlier this year, President Joe Biden issued an executive order to keep federal employees at least $ 15 per hour Hour, and advocates want his government to extend that wage to all American workers. “Let’s raise the minimum wage to $ 15,” said Biden to applause during his first address to a joint session of Congress in April. “No one who works 40 hours a week should live below the poverty line.” Although raising the minimum wage to $ 15 would help lift people out of poverty, American workers earn more, said Allynn Umel, national director of the Fight for $ 15. “Fast food workers in Arizona and across the country are faced with rising costs for rent, food, transportation, childcare and more every day,” he told Cronkite News in an email. “$ 15 an hour is the bare minimum workers everywhere need to survive, which is why fast food and other key workers have been marching on the streets for nearly nine years, shouting for $ 15, including workers from Mc-Donald at Phoenix Week. “Senator Kyrsten Simena, a Democrat from Arizona, is part of” a bipartisan task force negotiating a federal minimum wage increase and is currently working with Senator Mitt Romney to develop bipartisan law, “her office told Cronkite News. Arizona Junior Senator Democrat Mark Kelly said throughout his campaign that he supported the minimum wage hike and saw room for improvement in the $ 15 an hour proposal, and in March Sinema voted against a ruling a gradual increase to a minimum wage of $ 15. Her office noted that she has “indexed one” in the past en minimum wage in 2006 and the voter-approved government minimum wage increase in 2016 ”. While Sinema gave a thumbs down, Kelly gave a thumbs up. The minimum wage in Arizona is $ 12.15 an hour, but proponents say it is far from sustainable for the average worker. “Senator Sinema, like Joe Manchin in West Virginia, says she wants to raise the minimum wage, but they want to do it with their Republican counterparts,” Barber said. “The problem is that your Republican counterparts are publicly campaigning to block President Biden’s agenda, including the $ 15 minimum wage.” On Monday, Barber and other civil rights activists led a march and nonviolent sitin in Sinema’s office in central Phoenix to demand an end to the filibuster that allows the minority party to advance Senate laws, pass votes, and allow workers’ rights block legislation and raise the state minimum wage to $ 15 an hour.
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