We’ve reached the start of a new year, and that means Orange County also has a new living wage: $15.85 an hour, up 45 cents from last year.

That’s according to the nonprofit Orange County Living Wage. Each year, OCLW recalculates the community’s living wage, using the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Universal Living Wage Formula — which holds that the cost of housing should be no more than 30 percent of a person’s gross income. OCLW calculates the local living wage based on the average cost of a one-bedroom apartment in the Orange/Durham/Chatham/Alamance County region.

In 2021, the fair market rent for a one-bedroom apartment was $974 in Orange, Durham, and Chatham Counties, up a little more than 4 percent from the previous year. It’s significantly less in Alamance County – closer to $700 a month – and OCLW accounts for that too.

“The pandemic has shined the spotlight on workers and wages, and the essential services that thousands of employees in Orange County provide day in and day out,” says OCLW Director Susan Romaine, who’s also a member of the Carrboro Town Council. “A $15.85 hourly wage reflects the minimum wage necessary for workers to live close enough to our county to provide essential services like staffing our hospitals, schools, police and fire departments, grocery stores, pharmacies, and more.”

Orange County Living Wage certifies employers who pledge to pay all their employees a living wage — either $15.85 an hour, or $14.35 plus health benefits. Currently, 218 employers in Orange County are certified “living wage employers,” with nearly 10,000 employees between them. Many of those businesses raised wages in order to be certified; OCLW estimates those raises totaled more than $900,000 last year alone.

Among the largest living-wage employers: Orange County government; the towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough; both of Orange County’s K-12 school districts; and Durham Technical Community College.

While Orange County’s living wage increases every year, the legal minimum wage has remained unchanged since 2009. North Carolina’s minimum wage is $7.25 per hour for non-tipped workers – less than half of Orange County’s living wage.

 

Photo via Orange County Living Wage.

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