Oregon Minimum Wage Rises but Workers Still Need $33 an Hour to Afford Rent

Despite Oregon’s minimum wage hike last week, the increase only reaches a limited number of people- minimum wage workers- who are struggling to cover living costs and need more than an inflationary adjustment.

Oregon Minimum Wage Increase

Oregon Minimum-wage workers got a 50-cents-an-hour pay increase last week- based on a 3.3% CPI increase from March 2025 to March 2026- to keep up with inflation. But there’s only a small share of workers in that category.

The annual minimum-wage hikes, mandated in 2016, create three classes of minimum wage to take varying costs of living in different parts of Oregon into account.

The new minimum wage varies:

• Lowest: $14.55 an hour in rural Oregon
• Highest: $16.80 in the Portland area.

Since the law took effect, minimum wage workers have dropped to about 4%, compared to more than 7% in 2017.

The percentage of minimum wage workers shows significant differences by location and profession:

• Most minimum-wage workers are in Wheeler (33 jobs), Harney and Morrow counties, where over 6% of jobs pay minimum wage.
• In central Oregon, fewer than 3% of workers earn the minimum wage in neighboring, labor-constrained counties, Deschutes, Jefferson, and Crook.
• Nearly 1 in 10 Oregon hospitality workers earn minimum wage (excluding tips)
• About 7% of Oregonians in retail and natural resources jobs get minimum wage.
• Fewer than 2% of Oregon construction and factory workers get minimum wage
• Fewer than 1% of state employees get minimum wage,

New Oregon Minimum Wage Still Falls Short

Oregon’s minimum wage is going up, but even after the raise, a full-time minimum-wage worker still falls far short of what it takes to afford rent in the state, as the state’s housing costs continue to move on a different scale. Rent is still far ahead of minimum wages.

In contrast to the new standard minimum wage of $15.55 per hour, housing data indicates that a worker needs $33.02 an hour to afford a two-bedroom at fair market rent in Oregon.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition confirmed that a full-time worker needs $68,673 annually for rent and utilities without spending more than 30% of their income.

A gap is created when a minimum-wage worker in Oregon needs to work 73 hours per week to afford a one-bedroom apartment, or 88 hours per week to afford a two-bedroom apartment.

NLIHC lists Oregon median wages for common jobs under the two-bedroom housing wage, including cashiers at $16.74, fast food and counter workers at $16.85, retail salespersons at $17.69, janitors at $18.37, and home health and personal care aides at $20.30.