Every year, the Economic Policy Institute puts out the Family Budget Calculator, which “measures the income a family needs in order to attain a modest yet adequate standard of living” across the country. The Family Budget Calculator allows you to estimate community-specific costs for 10 family types (one or two adults with zero to four children) in all counties and metro areas in the United States. Compared with the federal poverty line and the Supplemental Poverty Measure, EPI’s family budgets provide a more accurate and complete measure of economic security in America.
On the Missouri side of the Kansas City Metro Area, where the Budget Calculator estimates a $8,680/month cost of living for a family of two adults and two children, Platte County beat out Clay County as the most expensive county for a family to live in. The Kansas side of the Kansas City Metro Area is, by the skin of its teeth, the more affordable side of the metro according to the calculator, coming in $8,674/month.
Missouri Counties:
- Platte County $9,344
- Jackson County $8,510
- Ray County $8,131
- Leavenworth County $8,119
- Lafayette County $8,035
- Cass County $7,825
- Caldwell County $7,824
- Johnson County $7,391
Kansas Counties:
- Johnson County $9,280
- Miami County $8,156
- Leavenworth County $8,119
- Wyandotte County $7,586
- Linn County $7,320
Interested in how these monthly costs of living compares to other locations in the two states?
- The cost of living for a two-parent, two-child family in Douglas County, KS, home of the University of Kansas, is: $7,774, compare that to University of Missouri’s Boone County, MO at $7,885.
- Sedgwick County, Kansas, home to Wichita State University, comes in at $7,543.
- Shawnee County, KS, home to the Kansas Capitol in Topeka, and one of the most union-dense cities in America, costs $7,477 per month.
- Cole County, MO, home to Jefferson City, comes in at $7,262 per month.
- The counties containing and surrounding St. Louis: St. Louis City County, MO is $7,979, St. Charles County, MO is $9,234, St. Louis County, MO is $9,429, and Jefferson County, MO is $8,342.
Some facts about income in, and around, Kansas City according to the United States Census Bureau:
- Median households income in Kansas City, MO (in 2023 dollars), $67,449
- Median households income in Jackson County, MO (in 2023 dollars), $67,178
- Median households income in Clay County, MO (in 2023 dollars), $86,150
- Median households income in Platte County, MO (in 2023 dollars), $86,150
- Median households income in Johnson County, KS (in 2023 dollars), $107,261
- Median households income in Wyandotte County, MO (in 2023 dollars), $60,582
Nationwide, being in a union is often the difference between surviving and thriving. Workers in a union have:
- higher wages (11.2% more than what nonunion workers make)
- employer-provided health insurance (96% compared to 69%)
- access to paid sick days (93% compared to 75%);
- retirement benefits through private employers (82% to 48%); and
- guaranteed pensions through private employers (54% to 8%).
Tristin Amezcua-Hogan is the Editor of The Labor Beacon and a member of LIUNA Local 264. Tristin also serves as the Director of Communications for the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO and the Chair of the Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance.
Tristin grew up as the son of a UA Local 669 member in Tecumseh, KS and the great-nephew of George C. Amis, longtime leader of the United Rubberworkers (now USW Local 307) in Kansas. Growing up in rural Kansas as the child of teen parents, Tristin quickly came to appreciate the life-changing benefit of a union job.
Tristin and his partner, Rebeca Amezcua-Hogan, are residents of the Westside, Kansas City, MO's historic Mexican neighborhood. They are proud members of Kansas City's New Reform Temple.
