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The study looked at the average cost of two-bedroom apartments and what a person has to earn to afford them in different metropolitan areas around the state. There are three metro areas in Fairfield County: Bridgeport, Danbury and Stamford-Norwalk.
On average, a two-bedroom apartment in Connecticut rents for $1,208 a month. To be able to afford this and utilities without paying more than 30 percent of their income, a renter needs a household income of $4,025 monthly or $48,304 annually, the study says.
The minimum wage in Connecticut is $8.25 an hour. That means, in order to afford the average two-bedroom apartment, a person earning minimum wage must work 113 hours a week, 52 weeks a year. The average renter earns $15.71 an hour in Connecticut.
The most expensive area in the county is the Stamford-Norwalk metro area, which includes Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan, Norwalk, Stamford, Weston, Westport and Wilton. For a two-bedroom apartment in Stamford-Norwalk, a renter needs to earn $31.69 an hour to pay the average rent of $1,648 a month. That means there needs to be 3.8 full-time minimum wage incomes coming into the household.
In the Danbury metro area, which includes Ridgefield and Redding, a renter needs to earn $26.62 an hour to pay the average rent of $1,384 a month for a two-bedroom apartment. Or there needs to be 3.2 full-time minimum wage incomes coming into the household.
In the Bridgeport area, which covers Easton and Fairfield, a renter needs to earn $23.69 an hour to pay the average rent of $1,230 a month for a two-bedroom apartment. That means there needs to be 2.9 full-time minimum wage incomes coming into the household.
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