The statewide minimum wage rose $1 in 2026, but so has the hourly wage Rhode Islanders need to rent a two-bedroom home, according to a new report. The increase was enough to move the state from the 18th most expensive for renters last year to the 13th this year.
The annual report, “Out of Reach,” was released Thursday by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) in partnership with the Housing Network of Rhode Island. In the 2026 report, Rhode Island renters with one full-time job needed $33.95 hourly or $70,617 annually to afford a two-bedroom apartment — which had a fair market rate of $1,765 a month — without spending more than 30% of their income on housing. A one-bedroom at the market-rate $1,424 would require almost $57,000 of annual income.
A little more than one third of Rhode Islanders live in rentals. Of those renters, the average hourly wage is $19.24, according to the report, enough to affordably rent at just $1,001 a month while working one full-time job. To afford a market-rate two-bedroom at the average wage would require a roughly 70-hour workweek, about one more hour than in the 2025 report. Renting a standard one-bedroom would require around 57 hours of work per week…