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 Lancaster County in 2021, a household of four with two earners would need each to earn $22.69 an hour, for a total of $94,390 a year, to make a living wage. A household of four with only one earner would need to make $36.26 per hour, or $75,421 a year. A single adult with two children would need to make $39.50 an hour, or about $82,160. Living in Lancaster was slightly less costly than the state as a whole.

Among neighboring counties, the living wage in Lancaster was on par with Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lebanon and York, and slightly below Chester.

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 minimum food, child care, health insurance, housing, transportation, and other basic necessities (e.g. clothing, personal care items, etc.) costs. More information on the sources of data for costs is available at http://livingwage.mit.edu/pages/about.