The typical retail worker in America earns $34,436 per year—51.6% less than they would need to finance the usual apartment.
The average apartment costs $1,779 per month, so a renter would need to make $71,172. Although affordability has somewhat improved in recent years, the average retail worker still makes $36,736 less than what they would need to pay for a normal apartment.
If a tenant pays no more than 30% of their income on rent, we consider the rental to be affordable. This is based on a Redfin analysis of multifamily rent data from the Zillow Observed Rent Index for October 2025 and 2024 wage projections from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Cashiers, retail salespeople, and first-line retail supervisors are among the groups of workers covered by wage data.
The average retail employee would need to work 83 hours a week in order to buy the average apartment on their own, which is obviously unfeasible for the majority of individuals.
“As the cost of living has increased, so have the sacrifices renters must make to afford a place to live,” said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. “Since most retail workers don’t earn enough to afford the typical apartment, many are opting to share rent with a family member or friend, move far away from their job, or live in a very small space. The good news is rents are no longer rising as fast as they were during the pandemic, so rental affordability has actually improved slightly in recent years.”
According to an Ipsos study of almost 1,600 renters commissioned by Redfin in May 2025, nearly one in four U.S. renters (23%) regularly or significantly struggle to afford the expense of housing. Nearly one in four (23%) of the 541 tenants who relocated in the 12 months prior to the poll claimed to have done so in order to save money on housing. According to an August Redfin research, many tenants are taking fewer vacations, dining out less frequently, and borrowing money from friends and family to pay their rent.
The retail business has been hit particularly hard by layoffs, with 88,664 job cuts this year—a 145% rise from last year, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Because of declining revenues, increasing tariffs, and the effects of artificial intelligence, retailers are cutting jobs. Seasonal retail hiring is anticipated to decline to the lowest level in 15 years, with the National Retail Federation estimating shops will hire 265,000 to 365,000 seasonal workers in 2025, down from 442,000 last year.
Although this research examines the “typical” retail worker and the “typical apartment,” it is important to note that many retail workers never really look for the usual apartment since it is too expensive for them. Because they are more likely to look for the usual apartment, we also examined rental affordability for higher-earning retail workers. We found that affordability is still severely stretched for this cohort. Retail workers with incomes in the top 25%, for example, nonetheless earn 44.2% less than they would need to rent the typical apartment.
While rental affordability for retail workers remains strained, it has improved marginally in recent years. The average retail employee makes 51.6% less than what they would need to pay for an apartment. That’s an improvement over the 52.2% shortfall in October 2024, the 54.2% shortfall in October 2023 and the 56.8% shortfall in October 2022.
Due to incomes growing more quickly than rents, affordability has somewhat improved. Retail worker earnings have been expanding at a pace of roughly 3% year over year, and rents have been climbing at a rate closer to 2%. In contrast to the epidemic moving frenzy, when rents were increasing far more quickly than salaries, it represents a change. Due to an increase in apartment building during the pandemic, which left landlords with more vacancies and less room to boost rates, rent growth has halted.
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