Do you earn a living wage in Fresno County? Here’s how much you need in 2025
Does your paycheck cover your basic living expenses?
Even if you earn the $16.50 minimum wage in California (over $9 higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25), the answer is probably no — including in Fresno County.
A single adult with no kids would have to make $23.35 hourly — about $6.85 over minimum wage — to cover basic living expenses, according to a living wage calculator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
What about homes with more than one adult, or with kids?
Here’s how that breaks down:
What is considered a living wage in Fresno County in 2025?
A living wage “is 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,” according to MIT.
Here’s how that looks for several different types of households in Fresno County, per the calculator:
- Single adult with no children: $23.35
- Single adult with one child: $41.21
- Single adult with two children: $52
- Single adult with three children: $65.48
- Two working adults with no children: $15.82
- Two working adults with one child: $23.22
- Two working adults with two children: $28.55
- Two working adults with three children: $34.25
How much does it cost to live in Fresno County?
Another way to look at it is: a single adult living alone in Fresno County needs at least $48,568 a year before taxes to afford food, housing, medical care, internet and other basic expenses, according to MIT.
That goes up to $85,716 for the single parent of one child.
In Fresno County, the median household income is $71,689, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The average family size is 3.08 people, according to the Fresno County Department of Public Health.
For people in Fresno County, housing and child care (if applicable) are among the biggest expenses, according to MIT’s calculations. Transportation is also a significant expense.
For a household with two working adults and three kids, those expenses equal about $75,127 on average. When you factor in food expenses, that total is $89,816.
How does MIT calculate living wages in the U.S.?
The MIT calculator collects data from several sources to determine the cost of basic needs — like housing, health care,child care, food, etc. — in different areas.
It also accounts for taxes in those areas and 12 different types of families. The data was last updated in February.
