If workers can't afford housing, you'll have plenty of empty and available positions, even at $15 / hour. Especially if you want / need reliable (ABLE to reliably show up for shifts) workers.

Let me break it down...

Let's start with $15 an hour.

Let's be generous and assume five 8 hour shifts per week (2080 hours per year: 5 shifts per week * 8 hours per shift * 52 weeks per year).

That's $600 per week ($15 per hour * 5 shifts per week * 8 hours per shift). Or $31200 ($600 per week * 52 weeks) per year.

Let's assume affordable housing is 30 miles away and takes an average of 1 hour to commute one way.

That's 10 hours of commuting per week (5 shifts, 1 hour EACH way or 1 * 5 * 2) or 520 hours commuting per year (10 hours per week * 52 weeks per yr).

The time commitment of the worker is 10 hours per shift (8 paid working, 2 unpaid commuting).

The yearly time commitment is 2600 hours per year (2080 working, 520 commuting).

So the effective hourly rate is $31200/yr / 2600 hours/yr which is $12 per hour.

BUT! Commuting isn't free. Let's assume the worker owns a car in order to get to and from work. Let's round off the cost per mile (gas, wear and tear) to be 50 cents a mile.

So the cost of commuting per shift is $30 (30 miles one way * 2 ways * $.50 / mile) or $7800 per year ($30 per shift times 5 shifts per week * 52 weeks per year)!

SO! To have the $15 per hour job costs the worker $7800 per year and 2600 hours per year!

So, ($31200 per year - $7800 per year) / 2600 hours = $23400 / 2600 hours = $9 per hour!

$9 per hour! That $15 per hour job is competing with $9 per hour jobs that are closer and more local to affordable housing and giving thousands of hours per year back to the worker.

Think about that...