The non-profit Orange County Living Wage announced a new annually adjusted living wage of $14.90 an hour in the county. The change, which was announced Monday, became effective January 1.

The organization helps set the guidelines for businesses in the county to be living wage employers, which means paying full and part-time employees the minimum amount of income needed to cover the most basic needs. The cost of rent, utilities, food, transportation and childcare in an area all contribute to how high or low the living wage is.

Director of Orange County Living Wage Susan Romaine said her organization is excited and grateful to employers that the county’s living wage is more than double the state and federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

“While our living wage adjusts for rising rent,” said Romaine, “the state and federal minimum wages have not budged in over 10 years. OCLW is extremely grateful to our living wage employers who are helping their workers make ends meet at a time of an affordable housing crisis here at home as well as across the state and country.”

OCLW says more than 200 employers in Orange county are certified with the organization as living wage employers. In 2018, the organization raised the county’s living wage to $13.70 an hour.

To calculate its living wage, OCLW says it uses the widely accepted Universal Living Wage Formula. This formula is based on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development standard: no more than 30 percent of a person’s gross income should be spent on housing. For its living wage calculations, OCLW defines “housing” as the average cost of a one-bed apartment in a four-county area comprised of Alamance, Chatham, Durham and Orange. OCLW includes the surrounding counties to calculate average rent because many local employees live in and commute from surrounding counties. The organization says only 20% of those who work in Orange County also live in the county, largely because of more affordable housing options in the nearby areas.

To learn more about its conditions for being a certified living wage employer or details on the living wage, visit Orange County Living Wage’s website.