Whether you’re exploring career options for the first time or interested in a career tune-up, there is one rubber-meets-the-road issue that most of us have to face: Will I make enough money?
While deciding what is “enough” can be a very complex and personal question, the Cost of Living Tool from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) provides information to help you make decisions.
What is the cost of living?
The Cost of Living Tool from DEED estimates the “basic-needs” cost of living in Minnesota. This tool calculates the total annual cost of items like child care, food, health care, housing, transportation, and taxes. The calculation does not include savings, restaurant meals, or entertainment.
You can see what the cost of living is by county, region, or view a statewide calculation. The tool also allows you to choose from a variety of family definitions, including one or two adults working either full-time or part-time, and up to four children.
Typical Minnesota Family Yearly Cost and Hourly Wage by Planning Region
|Region||Yearly Cost||Hourly Wage||Family Type|
|Seven County Mpls – St. Paul||$55,896||$17.92||Partnered – 1 full-time, 1 part-time worker and one child|
Source: Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development Cost of Living Labor Market Information (2015)
The chart above shows the yearly and hourly cost of living for a typical Minnesota family, considered to be a three-person family with two adults working a combined 60 hours per week.
You can see from the chart that the cost of living is highest in the seven county Minneapolis – St. Paul region. Southwest Minnesota has the lowest yearly cost.
Understanding the results
The chart below shows the hourly wage needed for a typical Minnesota family to meet the cost of living cost compared to the median wage for the region. Median wage means that half of the workers earns more than this amount and another half earns less than this amount. Ideally, the median wage will be larger than the cost of living if most workers are going to earn enough to pay their bills. This is true for all of Minnesota’s regions. Southeast Minnesota has a median wage that is the highest at 122% of the region’s cost of living. Central Minnesota has the lowest median wage with 104% of the cost of living.