Lake Charles Living Wage: Are You Really Making Enough to Live?

🐊 KNGT 🐊 | Lake Charles, LA — I know one thing we all ask ourselves, Do I make enough money? So with a little research, here’s the lowdown on the living wage in Lake Charles, and whether the paycheck you’re gettin’ is really enough to live on.

What’s a “living wage”?

First, let me break this down. A “living wage” is the hourly pay you’d need, working full time, to cover the basics: housing, food, healthcare, transportation, childcare, and stuff like that. It ain’t about fancy dinners or big vacations. Just surviving. This concept comes from the MIT Living Wage Calculator.

So when we ask, “Do I make enough money?” we’re askin’, “Does your pay hit or exceed that living wage?”

What is the Living Wage for Lake Charles, Louisiana?

MIT did the math for Lake Charles (Metro area). Here’s what they found:
Living Wage Calculator

Household setup Hourly living wage
1 adult, no kids $20.57
1 adult, 1 child $35.94
1 adult, 2 children $43.97
1 adult, 3 children $53.98
2 adults (only one working), 0 kids $29.31
2 adults (only one working), 1 child $36.10
2 adults (both working), 0 kids $14.65 (this number is lower because costs are shared)
2 adults (both working), 1 child $20.39

The minimum wage Louisiana has (or allowable wages in many jobs) is way below these living wage numbers. In that MIT table, for all household types, the “minimum wage” line is $7.25 for comparison.
Living Wage Calculator

If you’re making, say, $12, $15, even $18 an hour, that might feel decent in some places, but in Lake Charles, for a single adult you’d still be almost $2 - $8 under what you need just to cover basics. If you’ve got children, the gap gets massive fast. Wanting to eat, keep a roof, health costs, childcare, all those push the needed wage way up.

Also interesting, I saw another article that said in Lake Charles, a “single adult needs about $16.26/hour to cover basic living costs.” That’s a lot lower than MIT’s number, meaning either they used different cost estimates or left out some expense lines.

But even with that lower number, many full-time jobs in our area don’t hit that.