KENTUCKY HOMEOWNERSHIP WAGE INDEX

The Wage It Takes to Buy a Home in Kentucky — Published Every Year, Forced on No One

THE PROBLEM

In 2017, a Louisville worker earning $15 an hour bought a $110,000 house. The mortgage took a quarter of his paycheck. That worker was Dave Biggers.

Run the same numbers today:

❌ A $15/hour worker can afford a $99,000 house at today’s rates by the same 28% standard — and there are almost none for sale
❌ The Kentucky median home sold for $289,095 in June 2026, up 3.2% in a year
❌ Kentucky’s minimum wage is still $7.25 — unchanged since 2009, set by reference to federal law
❌ Every “living wage” number in circulation measures survival, not the thing Kentuckians actually want: a house with their name on it

The wage didn’t move. The house did.

Current Reality: The same paycheck that bought a home in 2017 rents one today.
Our Solution: A public, annually published number — the hourly wage at which a full-time Kentucky worker can buy the median Kentucky home — and public recognition for every employer who pays it.
Impact: One honest yardstick that every wage in the state can be measured against, and a reason to be proud of clearing it.

WHAT THE INDEX IS

The Kentucky Homeownership Wage Index is the hourly wage at which a full-time worker can carry a mortgage on the median Kentucky home using the standard a lender uses.

The formula fits on a napkin:

1. Take the median Kentucky home sale price for the prior 12 months.
2. Assume a standard buyer: 5% down, 30-year fixed at the current Freddie Mac average, property tax and insurance at Kentucky norms.
3. Compute the monthly payment (principal, interest, taxes, insurance).
4. A lender wants that payment at or below 28% of gross income. Divide by 0.28 for the annual income required.
5. Divide by 2,080 hours. That is the index.

Today’s number: $43.81 per hour.

Other sources put the statewide median between $278,000 and $298,000; the index lands between $42.13 and $45.16 across all of them. The published figure uses one named source and one named date, every year, so the number can be checked by anyone with a calculator.

The 2017 proof

Apply the same formula to 2017 — the Kentucky REALTORS’ fourth-quarter 2017 statewide median of $133,805 and a 3.95% mortgage — and the index reads $15.87 an hour. Dave earned $15 and bought a home. The formula is not a theory; it describes what actually happened to a Louisville worker nine years ago, and what stopped happening since.

WHAT METRO GOVERNMENT WILL DO

1. Publish it — every year, on the same day

Louisville Metro will compute and publish the Kentucky Homeownership Wage Index each January, with:

• The number, the inputs, and the arithmetic
• The gap to the state minimum wage ($7.25) and to the federal poverty line
• The share of Louisville jobs, by sector, that pay at or above it (from public wage data)
• A companion figure for renting the median Louisville apartment, so the index speaks to people who are not buying yet

The number lives on a permanent Metro page. Reporters, employers, unions and workers can all quote the same figure.

2. Recognize the employers who pay it — voluntarily

Any Louisville employer whose starting wage meets the index may apply for the Homeownership Wage Employer mark: a public listing, a window decal, and a place in Metro’s annual report.

• Opt-in. No employer is required to apply, report, or pay the index.
• Self-certified, spot-checked. Employers attest; Metro verifies a sample each year; a false attestation loses the mark.
• Free. No fee, no fine, no inspection regime.

This is a recognition program, not a regulation. It exists so that paying a homeownership wage is something a Louisville business can put on the door.

3. Measure Metro itself against it

Louisville Metro Government will publish, each year, how many of its own positions pay at or above the index and the plan to close the gap over time. The Metro Employee Bill of Rights carries that commitment and its funding.

4. Carry it to Frankfort

Louisville cannot set a minimum wage — Kentucky law preempts it, and the Kentucky Supreme Court struck down Louisville’s own ordinance 6–1 in 2016. What Louisville can do is put a number on the table that the General Assembly has to answer to. The index is that number. Dave’s administration will bring it to every session, with the annual report attached.

WHAT THE INDEX IS NOT

❌ Not a mandate. No employer is required to pay it.
❌ Not an ordinance. Kentucky Restaurant Association v. Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government (2016) settled that Louisville cannot set wages by ordinance under KRS Chapter 337. This policy does not try.
❌ Not a condition on doing business with Metro. Metro’s own contracting standards are set in the Worker Bill of Rights and the Metro Employee Bill of Rights, not here.
❌ Not a poverty line. It measures the wage that buys a home, not the wage that avoids hunger. That is the point.

WHY THESE CHOICES

Why 28%? It is the front-end ratio conventional lenders use. A worker at the index does not merely dream of a mortgage — they qualify for one.

Why the statewide median, not Louisville’s? A Kentucky worker should be able to buy a home in Kentucky. The statewide figure travels to Frankfort, applies to every county, and is harder to dismiss as a Louisville problem. (Louisville’s own median currently sits within a few thousand dollars of the state’s.)

Why publish instead of require? Because a number people trust does more work than a rule people fight. The 2016 ordinance produced a court case; a published index produces a conversation every January, in every newsroom in the state.

Why a homeownership wage instead of a living wage? Living-wage calculators answer “what does it cost not to fall behind.” Kentuckians ask a different question: “when do I get to buy the house?” The index answers the question people actually have.

IMPLEMENTATION COSTS

Carried as a named $350K line inside the Labor Standards Office budget established by the Worker Bill of Rights ($4M/year total — see its cost table). No new money. The index is a report and a list; it costs what a report and a list cost.

IMPLEMENTATION TIMELINE

Year 1 (2027): First index published in January with full methodology. Homeownership Wage Employer program opens; first listing published in June. Metro’s own gap report published alongside.
Year 2 (2028): Second index. Sector-by-sector share of jobs at or above the index added. First presentation to the General Assembly.
Year 3+ (2029+): Annual, same date, same formula. The formula does not change without a published explanation.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: Isn’t $43.81 an hour unrealistic?
A: It is what the median Kentucky home costs at today’s rates, stated as a wage. If the number is shocking, that is information about housing, not about the formula. In 2017 the same formula said $15.87. The index will fall when homes get cheaper or rates drop — and when they do, the index will say so.

Q: Will this drive employers out of Louisville?
A: Nothing here applies to any employer who does not choose it. The only thing an employer can lose is the chance to be on a list.

Q: Why not just fight for a higher minimum wage?
A: We will — in Frankfort, where the authority is. The index is what we bring to that fight: a Kentucky number, from Kentucky data, that every legislator’s constituents can check.

Q: What about renters?
A: The annual report will carry a companion figure for the median Louisville rent using the same 28% standard, so the index speaks to a worker’s next step, not only the last one.

Q: Does Metro pay its own workers the index?
A: Not all of them, today — and the Metro Employee Bill of Rights commits Metro to publish that gap every year and report what closing it would cost, rather than pretend otherwise.

Q: Who checks the math?
A: Anyone. Every input is public, every source is named, and the formula is five steps.

EVIDENCE BASE

• Kentucky median home sale price, June 2026: $289,095, +3.2% year over year — Redfin Kentucky Housing Market
• 30-year fixed mortgage average, August 27 2026: 6.66% — Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey
• Kentucky statewide median sale price, Q4 2017: $133,805 (+11.4% year over year); December 2017: $134,274 — Kentucky REALTORS, reported January 2018
• 30-year fixed mortgage average, December 2017: ~3.95% — Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey
• Kentucky minimum wage: $7.25, adopted by reference to federal law — KRS 337.275
• Local minimum wage preemption: Kentucky Restaurant Association v. Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government, Kentucky Supreme Court, October 20 2016 (6–1) — Louisville’s 2014 ordinance held invalid under KRS Chapter 337
• 28% front-end ratio — the conventional-lending housing-expense guideline (the “28/36 rule”); FHA’s own front-end guideline is 31%, so 28% is the more conservative of the two

OUR COMMITMENT

We will not tell a single employer what to pay. We will tell everyone what it takes — every year, in a number they can check — and Louisville Metro will publish its own gap to that number before it asks anyone else to look at theirs.

If you work full-time in Kentucky, you should be able to buy a home in Kentucky. This index says what that costs. The rest is up to all of us.

Related policies: Worker Bill of Rights (the floor for every worker) · Metro Employee Bill of Rights (Metro as employer) · Economic Development & Jobs (Proposal 1 now points here)