BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — A new national housing report says many Louisiana workers are earning too little to comfortably afford rent, leaving advocates calling for higher wages and more affordable housing options.
The 2026 “Out of Reach” report found a full-time worker in Louisiana must earn nearly $22 per hour to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent. In the Baton Rouge area, that hourly wage increases to more than $23 per hour.
The report is released annually and measures the hourly wage a full-time worker must earn to afford rental housing without spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs…