Singles and Affording California

Governor Newsom wants to make the state affordable for all, and we desperately need this to happen. Yet much of the conversation assumes that Californians live in dual income households, an arrangement that is increasingly not even enough to afford living comfortably in California, let alone Santa Barbara. In reality, solutions that focus on making California affordable for singles will also help everyone else.

The high cost of living in California is felt even more profoundly by the growing number of single income households. Census data reveals that single-person households comprised 29 percent of the U.S. population in 2022. This growing demographic is comprised of people of all ages, including lifelong singles, newly single, childless people, and single parents raising minor children.

Even 20 years ago, it took two incomes to live in the Golden State. As a new PhD in Santa Barbara, I recall I could not spare a dollar to buy gum with my initial salary. As a single person without children, I solved my economic problem by working two jobs and having a roommate, but those may not be options for singles with minor children.

The pandemic exacerbated high costs of living. My research on people living alone during the pandemic found that many reported economic concerns, such as if they got sick or lost their job, as they only had their income to rely on, unlike dual-income households. Others noted that with rents skyrocketing, they could no longer afford their apartments. Many reported that even before the pandemic, they felt left out of the public narrative that focused on couples and families.

For most, California is only affordable if you live in a dual-income household, either by working two jobs or having a partner. MIT calculated the income to cover basic needs for different regions, their living wage data for Southern California counties for a single person varied from $52,358 in San Bernadino County to $66,793 annually in Santa Barbara County. Those salaries place Californians in the “Low Income” or “Very Low Income” categories for qualifying for affordable housing support from the government. It is not a “living” wage if you need government assistance or to work multiple jobs in order to survive.

If policy makers only focus on the current metric for a “living” wage, then they miss the mark. For example, California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office recently published on the affordability of California homes. The median income for the state ($91,905 for a household of 2.89 people) is far lower than the income needed to qualify for a mortgage for a bottom tier home ($136,000). Monthly home payments have grown more than wages or rents since 2021.

The website Smart Asset calculated the salary needed to live comfortably with disposable income to enjoy life and the opportunity to save for the future, the basic financial security that voters want. By their calculation, the salary needed for a single working adult in California would be $113,652. The gap between the “living” wage and this “living comfortably” wage is astounding and deserves attention.

To be sure, many businesses could not afford to pay salaries this high, but raising pay is not the only solution. Instead, our elected leaders need to focus on lowering the cost of living, particularly housing. Although Governor Newsom recently funded 2,500 new affordable housing spaces, an increase over many previous years, it reflects only 12 percent of what is needed. More Californians of all household configurations need to be able to afford a home here in order to reach the goal of living comfortably.

It is going to take a multi-faceted, innovative approach to make California affordable for all. Policy makers should look beyond the “living wage” and adopt something like the Smart Asset calculation of a living comfortably wage, and track the proportion of the population of all household types that meet the metric. This is the standard of living that voters want.

Government can only set the salary scales for government positions, so monitoring to see that the salaries being offered reflect a living wage for the region for a single income household at all job classification types would help.

The state also needs to find ways to lower the cost of childcare and tuition for trade schools or college for everyone, not only for those earning the lowest incomes. Finally, even though Governor Newsom has more than doubled the production of new affordable homes, Californians need more. The housing problem and cost of living predates this administration, but voters are going to blame whoever the current administration is if they feel it does not offer them real solutions.

Policy makers and business leaders need to recognize that a growing portion of Californians do not belong to dual-income households. Therefore, the standard of living should not be based on “family incomes” but on the standard of living for a single income household to live comfortably. Legislators need to work with the governor to come up with a comprehensive plan for making it possible for all people — singles included — to live comfortably in California.

Erika Felix, PhD, is a professor of clinical psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Public Voices Fellow of The OpEd Project.