How much time at work it takes to afford a cup of coffee in New Jersey

Some of us can be a regular Lorelei Gilmore when it comes to having a mug (or two or three or four) of coffee each day. Don’t talk to us before our first cup.

While you might have an idea of how much your daily cup o’ joe costs, have you ever put that in terms of how much of your work day goes into affording it?

Good news: you don’t have to, because the site Coffeeness already did.

Cost of coffee

Here’s how they figured it out:

Our study explores how much time Americans in each state need to work to afford a daily cup of joe.

We compared the cost of a regular cup of coffee in an independent shop and a Starbucks coffee to each state’s average hourly wage.

Some interesting stats from the study:

☕ A cup of regular coffee is most affordable in Nebraska, costing $2.12. The state has an average hourly wage of $32.82, meaning it takes less than four minutes for them to earn that daily wake up.

☕ The worst state for coffee drinkers is Hawaii. Despite their decently high average hourly wage, it takes almost eight minutes before they’ve worked for a cup.

How affordable is New Jersey coffee?

All in all, the Garden State did pretty well with coffee affordability in Coffeeness’ study. We were a full buck and a half cheaper for regular coffee than Hawaii’s average price.

Price of coffee:
$3.31

Average hourly earnings:
$38.36

Amount of time worked until you’ve earned a standard cup:
5.18 minutes

That means almost half an hour of work each week goes to your coffee fix, more if you have multiple cups in a given day.

Starbucks lovers won’t like these numbers, they’re a tad higher:

Price of a cup of Starbucks coffee:
$4.77

Amount of time worked until you’ve earned a cup of Starbucks coffee:
7.46 minutes

Enjoy that first sip of caffeine each morning: you’ve earned it!

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5's Kylie Moore. Any opinions expressed are Kylie's own. You can follow Kylie on Instagram.
Click here to contact an editor about feedback or a correction for this story.