Will work for rent

The Bureau of Labor Statistics just released the wage numbers for the final quarter of 2017, and Butte, as might be expected, ranked pretty low. Of the 29 counties from California on the list (which features those with employment levels of 75,000 or more), only Tulare ($812) and Merced ($816) had lower average weekly wages than Butte’s $826. However, even though that number might seem depressing when compared to the top-earning regions—e.g., San Francisco County’s $2,232 per week average—when the cost of living is taken into account, things start to look less dismal. The chart below shows the percentage of wages that would be spent renting a two-bedroom residence in a small sampling of California counties.