According to the data analysis firm SmartAsset, Alaska is not even in the 15 top states for high cost of living. The amount a single person needs to make to live comfortably in Alaska puts it in the No. 16 spot.
Massachusetts is the state at the top of the list of expensive states, followed by Hawaii, California, New York, and Washington. A single adult in Massachusetts needs to make at least $116,022 to cover basics, wants, and savings in Massachusetts. That’s $55.78 per hour. For a family with two working parents of two children, the total family income will need to be about $301,184 for the same level of comfort, SmartAsset reports.
For Alaskans, a single person needs to make at least $46.52 an hour, or over $96,000 a year to support a comfortable lifestyle. A family of two adults and two children needs to be bring in $242,600 to live comfortably, SmartAsset reports.
That puts Alaska slightly above Vermont in terms of cost of a comfortable lifestyle, and just below Georgia, where a single person would need to make $46.58 to meet their needs, wants, and long-term goals.
The cheapest state to live in is West Virginia. There, a single adult needs to pull in $37.88 an hour, or $78,790 a year. For two working adults raising two children, the state is third-least expensive with the family requiring $189,364 in income across needs, wants, and long-term goals.
While West Virginia is cheapest for singles to live comfortably, Mississippi would be the cheapest place to raise two children, the report says. A family in Mississippi would need about $177,798 to cover the basic needs, wants, and savings goals. But it’s relatively more expensive for a single adult to achieve the same level of comfort in Mississippi. That person would need to earn $82,742.
States are ranked by the highest annual salary needed for a single adult to live in sustainable comfort using the 50/30/20 budgeting rule, SmartAsset explains. SmartAsset uses the MIT Living Wage Calculator data to figure out the basic cost of living for an individual with no children and for two working adults with two children. Data includes cost of necessities that cover housing, food, transportation, income taxes, and other miscellaneous items. The most recent data available was from February.
“Applying these costs to the 50/30/20 budget for 50 U.S. states, MIT’s living wage is assumed to cover needs (i.e. 50% of one’s budget). From there the total wage was extrapolated for individuals and families to spend 30% of the total on wants and 20% on savings or debt payments,” SmartAsset says.
Read the entire report and see the list of comfortable-wage salaries at this link.
