Some commentators insist that in order for middle-class families to get ahead, cities should strive to lower costs. Joel Kotkin, urban historian and self-appointed defender of the suburbs, holds up Houston as the model middle-class metropolis. "A person or business moving there gets an immediate raise through lower taxes and cheaper real estate." Metropolitan areas should encourage sprawl, Kotkin argues, in order to keep home prices low and legacy costs down.

There are things that cities can do to lower costs for middle-income households. Access to a robust public transit system, for example, keeps household transportation costs down. Transportation is the second-highest expense for U.S. households after housing, and the Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood Technology has shown that families that live in walkable, transit-accessible neighborhoods can drastically lower costs.

However, costs are only one part of the explanation; low wages are also to blame. Not surprisingly, of the ten largest metros, the metropolitan area with the lowest median income (Miami) also had the highest percentage of rent burdened households. And the metropolitan area with the highest median income had the lowest percentage of rent-burdened households (Washington, DC).

But cities and metropolitan regions can attack this problem by working to increase wages for middle-class workers. No longer content with the federal and state minimum wage, cities like Santa Fe and San Francisco have implemented their own minimum wage that applies to all workers in city limits. The result in Santa Fe was significantly higher wages in retail and food accommodation--fast growing sectors in our increasingly service-oriented economy. Within one year of implementation, wages in the retail sector grew much more quickly than in neighboring Albuquerque, $617 a quarter faster. For middle-income families, such an increase can be the difference between making the rent payment and facing eviction.

Not only has raising the minimum wage helped those families that received hefty raises, but has also had no negative effects on the city's overall economy. Researchers have overwhelmingly showed that employment in Santa Fe has performed as well or better than Albuquerque after raising wages. After all, you can outsource a manufacturing job, but service sector jobs in retail and home health care have to be local.

As the country eventually emerges from the economic doldrums, policymakers must pay more attention to raising wages for middle-class families. We may be in the middle of a "Great Reset", but without proactive government intervention, wages for most Americans will likely continue to stagnate and fall.