The level of income needed to afford basic expenses often exceeds the minimum wage, forcing the working poor to work multiple jobs or seek public assistance to make ends meet. Understanding the true level of income required to cover housing, food, clothing, child care, transportation and medical expenses provides a more accurate benchmark for assessing the jobs available in a region or local area. The living wage also adjusts for regional variation in costs.

In Norfolk County in 2021, a family of four with two earners would each need to earn $36 an hour, or about $147,700 a year combined, to meet the living wage level. A family of three with one earner needs an hourly wage of $65 to earn $135,200 a year to make ends meet. Two earners with no dependents must earn $17 an hour or $71,400 combined. Norfolk County was slightly more expensive than Middlesex County, Essex County and the state as a whole at all family levels.

Figures are in 2021 dollars and assume a 40-hour work week. The living wage model is an alternative measure of basic needs. It is a market-based approach that draws upon geographically specific expenditure data related to a family's likely costs for food, child care, health insurance, housing, transportation, and other basic necessities (e.g. clothing, personal care items, etc.). More information on the sources of data for costs is available at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.