Do you earn a living wage in Stanislaus County? Here’s how much you need in 2025
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- A single adult in Stanislaus County needs $23.54/hour to meet basic expenses.
- Two adults with three children require $142,387 annually to cover essential costs.
- MIT’s living wage calculator reflects local food, housing and tax variations.
Does it feel like you’re living paycheck to paycheck in Stanislaus County?
You’re not the only one.
The amount of money you need to earn to afford living in the Modesto-area has increased since 2024, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator.
While California’s minimum wage increased to $16.50 in 2025, many industries and cities now pay more.
Fast food workers in California earn at least $20 per hour, while some health care workers get up to $25 and hour and several cities set new hourly wages above $17.
In Stanislaus County, a single adult with no children would need to earn $23.54 an hour just to cover basic necessities including food, housing, transportation and medical care.
Here’s how the numbers break down:
What is considered a living wage in Stanislaus County in 2025?
MIT defines the living wage as “the hourly rate that an individual in a household must earn to support themselves and/or their family, working full-time, or 2,080 hours per year.”
Here’s how much single people, couples and families with kids need to earn per hour to earn a living wage in Stanislaus County in 2025, according to the MIT living wage calculator:
- Single adult with no children: $23.54
- Single adult with one child: $42.09
- Single adult with two children: $52.04
- Single adult with three children: $65.21
- Two working adults with no children: $16.41
- Two working adults with one child: $23.79
- Two working adults with two children: $28.68
- Two working adults with three children: $34.23
How much does it cost to live in Stanislaus County?
According to MIT, a single adult living alone in Stanislaus County needs to earn at least $48,962 a year before taxes to cover basic living expenses.
A household with two working adults and three children would need a minimum annual income of $142,387 to cover the basics.
How much can I expect to spend living in Stanislaus County?
Nationwide, consumer prices increased by 2.4% and food prices went up by 2.9% over the past 12 months, as of June 18, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Living wage requirements have increased across California since February 2024, according to MIT’s living wage calculator.
Single adults without children need to earn $1.40 more per hour — a 5% increase from 2024 — to keep up with basic costs.
Couples without kids need to make about 6% more, or $2.18, compared to the previous year.
Single parents with two children need to earn $2.59 more per hour, and couples with two children now need $2.05 more.
The biggest increase was for working couples with three children, who must earn nearly $6 more per hour to afford basic necessities. That’s an increase of approximately 11% from 2024.
Here’s how much Stanislaus County residents can expect to spend on living essentials every year, according to MIT:
How does MIT calculate living wages in the US?
MIT developed the living wage calculator in 2003 to comprehensively estimate the employment earnings that a full-time worker requires to cover or support the costs of their family’s basic needs where they live.
The calculator features geographically-specific costs for food, child care, health care, housing, transportation and other basic needs as well as taxes at the county, metropolitan area and state levels for 12 different family types.
MIT said it looked at living wage estimates for a total of 3,143 counties to “account for the geographic variation in costs” across the United States, as well as 384 metropolitan statistical areas and 50 states plus Washington, D.C.
The data came from sources including the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Agriculture and Department of Housing and Urban Development.
MIT said the living wage calculator was last updated on Feb. 10.
