Can You Live on $19 Dollars an Hour? - Dollarsanity (2024)

Maybe you’ve just come across a job listing or been offered a job that pays $19 an hour, and it’s time to crunch the numbers.

Can You Live on $19 Dollars an Hour? - Dollarsanity (1)

19 dollars an hour is how much a year? What about per month, week, and day? How much might you be left with after taxes? Is $19 an hour different if you’re a freelancer vs. a W-2 employee for a company?

Let’s dive into these questions and more information about how well you might be doing with a $19/hr job.

$19 an hour is how much a year

Let’s assume you’re working full-time, meaning 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year (including paid vacation time). We can use some simple multiplication to calculate how $19/hr adds up over each time period:

  • Daily:$19 x 8 hours = $ 152 a day
  • Weekly:$152 a day x 5 days = $760 a week
  • Monthly:$760 a week x 4.33 (the average number of weeks per month) = $3,291 a month
  • Yearly:$760 a week x 52 weeks = $39,520 a year

These are all the gross figures, meaning they’re what you earn before taxes are taken out. Your specific tax rates will vary depending on where you live, whether you’re filing jointly or singly, what deductions you qualify for, and so on.

Find out: Jobs That Pay $20 an Hour Without a Degree

$19 an hour is how much a year after taxes

25% is generally a good ballpark figure to estimate for federal and state taxes.

Using that 25% number, we can multiply our previous figures by the remaining 75% to figure out how much take-home pay you can expect after taxes when you earn $19 an hour:

  • Daily:$152 x 75% = $114 take home
  • Weekly:$760 x 75% = $570 take home
  • Monthly:$3,291 x 75% = $2,468 after taxes
  • Yearly:$39,520 x 75% = $29,640 after taxes

You can use aU.S. tax calculatorto more specifically estimate how much to expect in taxes. Note that if you’re earning $19/hr as a freelancer, you’ll pay even more, since you’re responsible for all your FICA taxes instead of having those covered by an employer.

Personally, I usually set aside more like 1/3 of my income because of this. (Learn more about self-employment taxes from the IRS here.)

Is $19 an hour Good, a decent, livable wage?

Since the federal poverty level for individuals in 2023 is $14,580, it’s reasonable to expect that earning $19 an hour should enable you to survive financially. However, the question remains whether you can truly live comfortably on that income.

The answer here is both simple and complicated:it depends.

The biggest factor is simply where you live. If you’re a digital nomad living in Costa Rica and making $19 US, you can live in luxury in a penthouse apartment.

If you live in Iowa, you can probably afford a mortgage on a decent house. But if you’re in a city like New York or San Francisco, $19 an hour will probably get you a closet with six roommates.

Let’s look at an example monthly budget for someone making $19 an hour. Since housing is one of the biggest expenses, we’ll start there, using the rule of thumb that you shouldn’t spend more than 30% of your gross monthly income on housing.

We’ll also budget in 15% on savings—you can always save more than this if you’re able, but think of saving and investing as a priority, not just “whatever I have left after my spending.” That’s money you’re paying to your future self to make your life better!

Net Monthly Income: $2,468

Depending on where you live, this kind of budget might seem extremely doable, or it might feel like there’s not much wiggle room.

Affording everything and managing to save will be a lot easier if you have a dual-income household. Two people who each work full-time and earn $19 dollars an hour have a net take-home of $4,936, which is a pretty solid amount for living well in most places!

Looking to stretch that $19 an hour wage as far as you can so you can live well and bump up your savings rate? It’s totally possible if you’re determined enough! Check out these72 tips to save money.

If you can only strip your budget down so far and you can’t find a job paying more than $19 an hour, consider supplementing your work with side gigs on nights or weekends.

This can be as simple as doing surveys onwhile watching TV, walking dogs throughRoveron Saturday mornings, or even starting your own business.

TL;DR:If you just came for the short answer to19 dollars an hour is how much a year?Answer: $39,520 before taxes.

Can You Live on $19 Dollars an Hour? - Dollarsanity (2024)

FAQs

Is $19 an hour a livable wage? ›

California's living wage is $19.41, or $40,371 a year for an individual. A family of four requires $27.42, or $101,378 a year.

Can I live on my own making 20 dollars an hour? ›

At this $20 hourly wage, you are close to double the minimum wage. Things should be easy to live off this $20 hourly salary. However, it is still below the median income of over $60,000 salary. That means it can still be a tough situation.

What if you get paid $19 an hour? ›

If you make $19 per hour, your Yearly salary would be $39,520.

How much is 19 an hour 40 hours a week? ›

$19 hourly is how much per week? If you make $19 per hour, your Weekly salary would be $760. This result is obtained by multiplying your base salary by the amount of hours, week, and months you work in a year, assuming you work 40 hours a week.

Can a single person live off $18 an hour? ›

Yes, you can do it, and as you can see that it is possible with the sample budget of $18 per hour. Living in a higher cost of living area would be more difficult. So, you may have to get a little creative. For example, you might have to have a roommate.

What is truly a livable wage? ›

Wage Statistics
#StateLivable Wage
5California$21.82
6New Jersey$20.57
7Maryland$19.74
8Oregon$19.51
47 more rows

What is a healthy living wage? ›

The living wage rates, effective July 1, 2022, will increase by $1.04 per hour for a new living wage rate of $16.04 per hour with health benefits of $1.25 per hour, or $17.29 per hour if health benefits are not provided.

What is a living wage in the US for a single person? ›

An analysis of the living wage (as calculated in December 2022 and reflecting a compensation being offered to an individual in 2023), compiling geographically specific expenditure data for food, childcare, health care, housing, transportation, and other necessities, finds that: The living wage in the United States is ...

How to survive on minimum wage? ›

17 Tips for Living on Minimum Wage
  1. Evaluate Your Overall Spending. ...
  2. Create and Stick to a Budget. ...
  3. Put Some Money Towards Savings. ...
  4. Look Into Government Benefits. ...
  5. Save on Food. ...
  6. Find Additional Ways to Increase Your Income. ...
  7. Lower Your Housing Costs. ...
  8. ​​Work Towards Reducing Your Debt.
Feb 14, 2023

How much is $50,000 a year per hour? ›

Takeaway. $50,000 per year is approximately $24.04 per hour, but it's not as simple as it may seem to convert annual salary to hourly pay. Information is accurate as of Feb. 15, 2023.

What if you make $19.50 an hour? ›

$19.50 an hour is $40,560 without vacation time.

If you work a full 40-hour week for 52 weeks, that amounts to 2,080 hours of work. So $19.50 an hour in income times 2,080 is $40,560 salary per year.

How much is $19 an hour for 8 hours? ›

Comparison Table Of $19 An Hour
$19 An HourTotal Income
Yearly (262 Work Days)$39,824
Monthly (175 Hours)$3,325
Weekly (40 Hours)$760
Daily (8 Hours)$152
3 more rows
Mar 30, 2019

How much money is $19.50 an hour? ›

If you make $19.50 per hour, your Yearly salary would be $40,560.

How much is $19 an hour monthly? ›

$19 hourly is how much per month? If you make $19 per hour, your Monthly salary would be $3,293.

How much is $19 an hour salary 20 hours a week? ›

Only 20 hours per week. Then, take 20 hours times 52 weeks and that equals 1,040 working hours. Then, multiple the hourly salary of $19 times 1,040 working hours, and the result is $19,760.

What is 19 dollars an hour annually after taxes? ›

If you are earning $19 an hour and working 40 hours every week, you will be working 2,080 hours every year. So, your gross income every year would be $39,520. In the state of Massachusetts, this would be $31,639 take-home salary after taxes every year. This is $2,637 every month on average.

Can a single person live off of $1000 a month? ›

Getting by on $1,000 a month may not be easy, especially when inflation seems to make everything more expensive. But it is possible to live well even on a small amount of money.

Is $15 an hour enough to live on your own? ›

Two adults who work 40 hours a week each and earn $15 an hour make $62,400 before taxes. That's below what the Economic Policy Institute calculates as a living wage for most of the country.

Can you live on your own making $17 an hour? ›

Yes, you can do it, and as you can see that it is possible with the sample budget of $17 per hour. Living in a higher cost of living area would be more difficult. So, you may have to get a little creative. For example, you might have to have a roommate.

How much money do you need to live comfortably without working? ›

Using the 4% rule to estimate how much money you need to never work again involves knowing how much you plan on spending that first year or retirement. For example, if you want to spend $200,000, the math is $200,000/. 04 = $5,000,000. Another way to calculate this is that you would need 25x your annual spending rate.

How many Americans live on minimum wage? ›

There are at least 1.1 million Americans (or 1.4% of all hourly paid workers) who earn less than or equal to the federal minimum wage as of 2021.

How much should I be making at 30? ›

$50,000.00

Can a family survive on minimum wage? ›

The minimum wage does not provide a living wage for most American families. A typical family of four (two working adults, two children) needs to work nearly two full-time minimum wage jobs each (a 77-hour work week per working adult) to earn a living wage.

What is minimum vs livable wage? ›

A living wage is the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet his or her basic needs, while federal and state minimum wages are the minimum rates that all covered employers must pay all workers. They generally apply to most employers, with the state minimum wage applying to those who work in that state.

What is a good salary in US per month? ›

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median annual wage across all occupations in 2021 was $58,260 [1]. For a person living in Phoenix, Arizona, where the median wage is $56,610, earning above the national average may be considered very good.

Is $16 an hour a livable wage for one person? ›

Not in most of California. divided by 12 months is $2773.00 a month.

What is poverty wages in US for a single person? ›

2021 POVERTY GUIDELINES FOR THE 48 CONTIGUOUS STATES AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Persons in family/householdPoverty guideline
1$12,880
2$17,420
3$21,960
4$26,500
5 more rows

How much does the average American woman make? ›

Median earnings for women in 2021 were 83.1 percent of the median for men. In 2021, median weekly earnings for wage and salary workers who usually worked full time were $998. Median earnings for women were $912, or 83.1 percent of men's earnings.

How to afford bills on minimum wage? ›

How To Live Off Of Minimum Wage
  1. Create a budget.
  2. Open some checking, savings, and retirement accounts.
  3. Set up direct deposit and automated bill pay.
  4. Avoid bad debt and build good credit.
  5. Get some government benefits.
  6. Take classes, freelance, and increase your earnings.
  7. Set some financial goals.
  8. Summary.
Feb 1, 2023

Why minimum wage is not livable? ›

The minimum wage is a poverty wage.

This leaves no room in a single adult's budget for health care, food or savings. When you add the costs of supporting children, this income becomes even more unsustainable.

How many minimum wage workers are in poverty? ›

While 20 percent of working families earning the $7.25 minimum wage or below live in poverty, 13 percent of families with a worker earning up to $12 per hour live in poverty and 5 percent of families of with a worker earning up to $16 per hour live in poverty.

How much is $20 an hour annually? ›

How much does a $20 An Hour make? As of Apr 25, 2023, the average annual pay for a $20 An Hour in the United States is $40,760 a year.

How much is $20 an hour weekly? ›

$20 an hour is how much a week? If you make $20 an hour, your weekly salary would be $800.

How much is $100 K year hourly? ›

$100,000 is $48.08 an hour without vacation time.

If you work a full 40-hour week for 52 weeks, that amounts to 2,080 hours of work. So $100,000 a year in income divided by 2,080 is a $48.08 hourly wage.

Is $21 an hour decent pay? ›

Absolutely. In fact, $21 an hour is higher than the median hourly wage of $19.33 (source). That seems backward, but typically salaried workers earn more per hour than hourly workers.

Is $50 an hour too much? ›

Is 50 an Hour Good? Yes, $50 an hour is actually good pay. To put things into perspective, $50 an hour is almost seven times higher than the federal minimum wage. As of 2022, the Federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.

What if you make $41 an hour? ›

If you make $41 an hour, your yearly salary would be $85,280.

How much is $19 an hour every two weeks? ›

If you make $19 per hour, your Biweekly salary would be $1,406.

How much is $19 an hour for two weeks? ›

$19 an hour times 80 hours bi-weekly equals $1,520 salary every two weeks.

How much is 40k a year hourly? ›

So if an employee earns $40,000 annually working 40 hours a week, they make about $19.23 an hour (40,000 divided by 2,080).

How much is $20.50 an hour 40 hours a week? ›

$41,000

What is $40 hourly salary? ›

$40 an hour is how much a year? If you make $40 an hour, your yearly salary would be $83,200.

Can you live on 40k a year? ›

Individuals can often live comfortably on $40,000 a year. Families, however, may struggle with this salary, especially in areas with a higher cost of living.

How much hourly Is 3000 a month? ›

If you make $3,000 a month, your hourly salary would be $17.31.

How much is 20 dollars for 40 hours a week? ›

To figure out how much $20 an hour is per year, multiply $20 by how many hours you work. For most full-time jobs, that's 40 hours per week for 52 weeks, or 2,080 hours per year, if you don't take any time off. That means $20 an hour is $41,600 a year.

How much is $18.50 dollars an hour annually after taxes? ›

$18.50 an hour in income is $18.10 an hour after federal taxes, roughly, if we assume you work 2,000 hours in a year (an average of 40 hours per week, with two weeks of total holidays). You're expected to pay about $809 in net federal taxes leaving you an annual after tax income of $36,191.

What is $22 an hour annually? ›

If you make $22 an hour, your yearly salary would be $45,760.

Is 40k a year good? ›

Is 40k a year good for a single person? Depending on your take-home pay, and the cost of living in your area, $40,000 can be considered a reasonable starting salary for a single person. However, with the cost of necessities consistently rising, $40,000 could become insufficient without a solid budget set in place.

Where can I live for $500 a month in USA? ›

Without further ado – and in no particular order – here's what $500 per month can get you in ten affordable U.S. cities:
  • Greenville, OH. Listing: Wayne Crossing. ...
  • Wichita, KS. Listing: Eagle Creek. ...
  • Lawton, OK. Listing: Sheridan Square Apartments. ...
  • Amarillo, TX. ...
  • Indianapolis, IN. ...
  • Searcy, AR. ...
  • Shreveport, LA. ...
  • Jackson, MS.
Oct 9, 2020

Where in the world can I live for $800 a month? ›

A single person can live in Vietnam for as low as $800 a month, according to Numbeo. The cost of living, on average, is 47% lower than in the United States and rent is 66% lower. Rent in Ho Chi Minh City will cost you a little more but rent in the beautiful beach city Nha Trang is only $349.

Can I live on my own if I make 2000 a month? ›

Yes, it is possible to live on $2000 a month. But, it depends on several factors such as the cost of living in your area, your lifestyle, and expenses. High expenses, such as supporting dependents, paying for medical bills, or living in an expensive city, can make it difficult to live on $2000 a month.

What is a livable wage in the US for one person? ›

For one full-time working adult with no children in 2022, the national average living wage is $17.46 per hour – or $36,311 annually.

How much is $19.50 an hour annually? ›

$19.50 an hour is $39,000 a year in annual income.

If you earn an hourly wage of $19.50 an hour and work for an average of 40 hours a week for 50 weeks a year, you'll earn a yearly salary of $39,000.

Can you live off 21 an hour? ›

At this $21 hourly wage, you are close to double the minimum wage. Things should be easy to live off this $21 hourly salary. However, it is still below the median income of over $60,000 salary. That means it can still be a tough situation.

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