BANGOR – Someone making minimum wage in this city would need to work nearly 80 hours a week to afford an average two-bedroom apartment, according to a study released Monday.

While that long week might sound daunting for low-wage workers in the Bangor area, the average cost of rent and utilities here is not out of line with the state average, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s “Out of Reach 2004” report.

In the Bangor metropolitan area, which includes 14 nearby towns, a worker would have to earn $12.35 an hour – nearly twice the state’s $6.25 minimum wage – to afford the average $642 a month for rent and utilities for a two-bedroom home. That hourly wage a person needs in Bangor is slightly below the state average of $12.82 a person would need.

Nationally, the typical American worker must earn at least $15.37 an hour for comparable living quarters, the coalition found. That’s nearly three times the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour.

The coalition’s wage figures assume that a family spends no more than 30 percent of its gross income on rent and utilities, since the government generally considers anything more unaffordable.

The disparity between wages and housing costs throughout much of Maine demonstrates the need to increase the state’s minimum wage, according to Christopher St. John, director of the Maine Center for Economic Policy.

“It requires a surprising wage to cover basic costs,” said St. John, whose group advocates linking the minimum wage to inflation.

But even if the state’s minimum wage were to rise with the annual increases in the cost of living, it would fail to keep pace with the housing market throughout much of Maine, St. John predicted, singling out the Portland area.

Indeed, that same minimum wage worker in Portland would need to work 110 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom apartment, which averages $895 a month with utilities. Based on those numbers, a person who worked seven days a week and slept eight hours a day would have about 30 minutes a day of free time.

To afford average housing in Portland, a worker would have to make an hourly wage of $17.21.

Meanwhile, T.J. Martzial, Bangor’s housing programs manager, said Monday that affordability was not the only challenge facing house hunters in Bangor.

“They’re not available even when they are affordable,” said Martzial, noting that the Census Bureau’s latest figures show a relatively low 4 percent vacancy rate in the city, making it difficult for people to find low-income housing. Housing experts generally consider a vacancy rate of 7 percent healthy.

Because of changes in how the data were collected, comparisons to past years would be invalid, according to the report’s authors, who on Monday commented on their findings.

“Whether you’re in Boston or Nashville … a red state or blue state, you can expect to pay more than you can afford for modest housing,” said Sheila Crowley, the coalition’s president, during a conference call with reporters.

Maine ranked 25th in the nation in terms of affordability. The District of Columbia had the least affordable housing, requiring an hourly wage of $22.83. West Virginia was the state with the most affordable housing, requiring an hourly wage of $9.31 to afford a basic two-bedroom apartment.

Maine was the most affordable New England state, according to the study. Elsewhere in the region, Massachusetts was the least affordable, followed by New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont.

The report is available at www.nlihc.org