PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Oregon and Washington are two of 14 states where residents need to earn $70,000 or more to make ends meet, a new analysis finds. 

The report published in late July by the personal finance website GOBankingRates lists the living wage needed in all 50 states. 

It also shows that the cost of covering expenses can vary by as much as $80,000, depending on the state. That means a person could be living comfortably in one state, but living paycheck to paycheck in another. 

GOBankingRates defines the “living wage” as the income a person needs to cover necessary and discretionary expenses while still contributing to savings. 

The study pulled data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and used the 50/30/20 budgeting rule, which allocates 50% of an income to necessities, 30% to discretionary expenses and 20% to savings, to learn what a person would need to comfortably cover their needs while also saving. 

The numbers showed that the average salary in some states might not be enough to cover that. 

The analysis showed the state with the highest living wage is Hawaii at $132,912 and the state with the lowest is Mississippi at $51,754. 

In Oregon, the report says the annual living wage is $82,926. In Washington, it’s $73,465. 

The report found that the gap between Oregon’s median salary and its living wage is $17,259. The housing cost is one of the biggest reasons it costs so much to live in Oregon. The report says the average Oregonian needs more than $19,498 to pay for a place to live. 

While it’s pretty expensive to live in Washington compared to the rest of the country, the report says salaries in the state are fairly high. The medium income is $77,006, which is more than the annual living wage. 

Below are the 14 states where the living wage is above $70,000: 

  1. Hawaii: $132,912 
  2. New York: $101,995
  3. California: $94,778 
  4. Massachusetts: $86,480 
  5. Alaska: $85,083 
  6. Oregon: $82,926 
  7. Maryland: $82,475 
  8. Vermont: $78,561 
  9. Connecticut: $76,014 
  10. Washington: $73,465 
  11. Maine: $73,200 
  12. New Jersey: $72,773 
  13. New Hampshire: $72,235 
  14. Rhode Island: #71,334

To create its report, GOBankingRates surveyed annual living expenses in all 50s states using the 2020 Consumer Expenditure Survey data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These are the latest data available. It determined the cost of housing, groceries, utilities, health care and transportation to be necessities.