For all the smart ones like Michele Bachmann who want to lower the minimal wage, this is a starting point. Minimal wage earners has to go on assistance to have a roof over their head. It is not like they can obtain $250,000 farm welfare pay to aid the family farm as her family has done.

In just a quick look at craigslist at Indiana's three largest cities (Indianapolis, Ft. Wayne and Evansville) you don't have to look very far to find several listings for $500 or less. With a minimum wage of $7.25, that's actually about 17 hours per week to afford the rent. I'm not saying that's great, but it's not nearly as bleak as you present.

My kids go to school in Evansville and they have been able to find some really nice places for less than $500.

You can't determine the mean rental rate from a handful of Craiglist ads.

to post underpriced rentals out there.

I didn't say it was a scientific method to determine the mean rental rate. However, if I were looking for a modestly priced apartment - right now - i'd be able to find several in each of the three largest cities in the state.

Someone needs to notify the owners of those apartments and houses that they don't exist according to your statistics....

Intelligence fail. They do exist, and more expensive ones do. Yay for averages. The dataset is accurate.

Same goes for where I live, Hamilton County.

Yes, it IS as bleak as the graphics present.

The chart says that someone earning $7.25 an hour will have to work in excess of 70 hours a week to get a 2 bedroom apartment in Indiana. That's going to be AT LEAST $2170 a month.... for a 2 bedroom apartment.... IN INDIANA!

I've lived in Indiana for better than 20 years. I know people in extremely nice, 4 bedroom, 3 bath houses with a pool that don't pay nearly that much!

Come on!!! Are you telling me that it costs $2200 a month for a 2 bedroom in Hamilton County (or anywhere else in Indiana for that matter). I call bullshit!

Look - I agree... the minimum wage is too low - especially for most of the country. But, don't go beating your chest over a bunch of bullshit statistics that are blatantly bogus! Take just a casual look through any paper or housing web site in the state and you won't find anything close to this!

It's not enough just to have the apartment. A person must eat, have various hygiene products available, clothes, etc. Just a thought, as I'm very much NOT a statistician.

Housing expenses include more than just rent, unless you just want to sit in an cold and empty shell of a place.

That's why the housing picture is as bleak as it is. Perhaps on paper a person can afford the rent, but when everything else is factored in, that's when it gets scary. You may be able to make the rent payment just fine, but will you have enough left over for everything else, like utilities and food?

I've worked with enough people whose answer to that would be an emphatic NO. If the person who thinks otherwise knows where such a utopia exists, please, do tell.