SEATTLE – (By Dale King, Realty News Report) – When the U.S. retail market was ravaged by pandemic-inflicted slowdowns and shutdowns and was also upended by home computer-generated e-commerce and doorstep package delivery that kept scores of shoppers away from brick-and-mortar stores, shops and restaurants, the situation got major media coverage.
While the news focused on the devastation the retail marketplace endured, it gave little attention to typical retail workers whose lives were also being squeezed. The retail sector has emerged from the doldrums.
But the average retail workers are mired in struggles – such as being able to find an affordable apartment.
Seattle-based real estate brokerage Redfin just completed a report examining the average retail worker in America. It analyzes the employment, financial and housing status of workers — cashiers, retail salespersons and first-line retail supervisors, among others – and finds they still come up short.
The document opens with a bullet-point analysis of their current housing situation:
- The typical retail worker earns $34,436 per year, about 51.6% less than they need to afford a typical apartment.
- Rental affordability has improved slightly in recent years. During the pandemic moving frenzy, a typical retail worker earned 57% less than they would need to acquire an average apartment unit.
- A typical worker’s salary shortfall is smallest in Cleveland, where the employee earns 33% less than they need to afford a typical apartment. New York has the largest shortfall, at 71%.
The report says a renter would need to earn $71,172 to afford a typical apartment, which leases for about $1,779 per month. Redfin considers a rent unit affordable if the leaseholder spends no more than 30% of his or her income on rent.
If typical retail workers wanted to rent an average apartment on their own, they would need to work 83 hours per week – an unrealistic objective for most folk.
To make ends meet, many renters eat at restaurants less often, take fewer vacations and borrow money from friends or family, Redfin reported earlier this year.
“As the cost of living has increased, so have the sacrifices renters must make to afford a place to live,” said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather.
“Since most retail workers don’t earn enough to afford the typical apartment, many are opting to share rent with a family member or friend, move far away from their job or live in a very small space. The good news is rents are no longer rising as fast as they were during the pandemic.
Lone Star State Shortfalls
Redfin surveyed the financial circumstances of typical retail workers in four leading Texas metros and found the affordability barrier to be less severe:
Austin – Typical retail worker makes $33,466, 41.9% below what is needed to pay for a mid-range apartment.
Dallas – Typical retail worker makes $32,968, 45.5% less than they need to afford a typical apartment.
Houston – Average retail worker makes $31,739, 44.2% less than amount needed to rent a typical apartment.
San Antonio – Typical retail worker makes $32,201, 35.2% less than necessary to meet a typical apartment rent.
Retail job market shaky
Typical retail workers face another challenge – employment, says Redfin.
“The retail industry has been hit particularly hard by layoffs, with 88,664 job cuts this year—a 145% increase from last year,” says executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
The company said retailers are eliminating jobs due to falling sales, rising tariffs and the impact of AI. Seasonal retail hiring during the current holiday period is expected to fall to the lowest level in 15 years, with the National Retail Federation predicting retailers will hire 265,000 to 365,000 seasonal workers this year, down from 442,000 last year.
Redfin adds: “While this report analyzes the ‘typical’ retail worker and the ‘typical apartment,’ the reality is that many retail workers never actually seek out the typical apartment because it’s out of their price range.”
For that reason, Redfin also looked at rental affordability for higher-earning retail workers — a group more likely to seek out a typical apartment. The analysis determined that affordability is still very strained for this group. Retail workers with wages in the top 25%, for example, still earn 44.2% less than they need to afford the typical apartment.
While rental affordability for retail workers remains strained, it has improved slightly in recent years. While the typical retail worker earns 51.6% less than they need to afford a typical apartment, it’s an improvement from the 52.2% who couldn’t muster sufficient rental cash in October 2024, the 54.2% who fell short in October 2023 and the 56.8% who couldn’t make the leaseholder nut in October 2022.
“Affordability has improved slightly because wages have been growing faster than rents,” says the report. “Retail worker wages have been growing at a pace of around 3% year over year, and rents have been growing at a rate closer to 2%. That’s a shift from the pandemic moving frenzy, when rents were growing much faster than wages.”
Rent growth has slowed because an apartment-construction boom during the pandemic left landlords with rising vacancies, giving them less leeway to raise rents.
Dec. 21, 2025 Realty News Report Copyright 2025
Image: Realty News Report Copyright 2025
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