Exactly; very disturbing. As a FReeper pointed out probably over a year ago, the math calculation of 40 hours at a generic minimum wage worked out to almost exactly the same result as 29 x $15 - the “new normal”...
David Stockman has a breadwinner chart in some of his articles. His definition of a breadwinner is income of $25/h or more. I haven't looked at it lately. but the general theme is there are currently less breadwinner jobs than in 2000 or 2007. I think the peak was around 80M jobs. There are about 40M more Americans now than in 2000.
In my town you don't have to be a breadwinner to have a halfway decent life. One can be a handyman or house cleaner for $20/h. A husband and wife team could gross $80K a year assuming full time work. Even if they pulled in only $60K, that is still a pretty good chunk of change for my town..