Do you earn enough? See what Triangle families must make to cover the basics in 2025
Providing for a family of four in the Triangle now requires an annual wage of over $100,000, new data shows.
The N.C. Budget & Tax Center calculated the 2025 “Living Income Standard” (LIS) for all counties in North Carolina and found that the region’s four counties — Wake, Durham, Orange and Chatham — are among the most expensive in the state to live in.
Heading into 2025, a four-person household needs $111,040 annually, or $9,250 per month, to make ends meet in Wake and Orange counties, the report said.
In Chatham, it’s slightly higher at $111,100 or $9,260 per month.
In Durham, it’s around $108,290 annually, or $9,020 per month.
Across the board, the income calculation has jumped over 32% for all counties since the Durham-based nonprofit released its last update in mid 2022.
“Not surprisingly, the living income standard has grown considerably,” said Logan Rockefeller Harris, the research manager at the N.C. Budget & Tax Center and one of the report’s authors.
Supply shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine and excessive pricing used by corporations during inflationary periods — what she calls “greedflation” — have led to runaway costs.
“Families in North Carolina and across the country [have been hit] hard,” she said.
A benchmark
Roughly every two years, the nonprofit releases the report as a “benchmark for basic income” across the state. It covers a variety of family types in all 100 counties, along with a statewide average. Using federal and state data, it determines the Living Income Standard based on eight household necessities: food, housing, child care, health care, transportation, miscellaneous costs, savings and taxes.
The result is a “modest family budget” that leaves little room for emergencies, and nothing for leisure. It also varies considerably by family types and geography. For a family of four, the annual LIS ranges from just over $77,000 in Halifax County to nearly $113,000 in Union County, data showed.
Across the state, on average, a four-person household needs about $97,500 per year, or $8,100 per month, the report said. That’s more than three times the federal poverty level to make ends meet — a sign that the federal poverty level remains “totally out of sync with what it costs to support a family,” Harris said.
“In many cases, it’s literally impossible to earn the LIS while being paid minimum wage because there simply aren’t enough hours in a week.”
The state minimum wage — which is the same as the federal minimum wage at $7.25 per hour — is “a poverty wage,” she added. “There are 168 hours in a week, but in North Carolina a single parent with one child would need to work 200 hours each week to make the statewide average LIS at minimum wage.”
For full report, visitncbudget.org. Use the top-right filter to find the LIS in all counties for six types of households in 2025.
A quick local snapshot
Wake County
- Each adult in a two-parent, two-child household in Wake County needs to earn $26.70 per hour to meet the Living Income Standard, the NC Budget & Tax Center’s Wake County snapshot says.
- A single parent to one child needs to earn $41.40 per hour to meet this standard.
Durham County
- Each adult in a two-parent, two-child household in Durham County needs to earn $26 per hour to meet the Living Income Standard, the NC Budget & Tax Center’s Durham County snapshot says.
- A single parent to one child needs to earn $41.30 per hour to meet this standard.
Chatham County
- Each adult in a two-parent, two-child household in Chatham County needs to earn $26.70 per hour to meet the Living Income Standard, the NC Budget & Tax Center’s Chatham County snapshot says.
- A single parent to one child needs to earn $41.30 per hour to meet this standard.
Orange County
- Each adult in a two-parent, two-child household in Orange County needs to earn $26.70 per hour to meet the Living Income Standard, the NC Budget & Tax Center’s Orange County snapshot says.
- A single parent to one child needs to earn $42.20 per hour to meet this standard.
This story was originally published January 20, 2025 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Do you earn enough? See what Triangle families must make to cover the basics in 2025."
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the hourly wage needed per individual in a four-person household for each county.
