Source:
http://www.epi.org/publication/what-families-need-to-get-by-epis-2015-family-budget-calculator/There's some pretty interesting data here that I don't have time to read through right now (I'm at work). The article mentions that minimum-wage jobs don't provide enough money to live a middle-class lifestyle.
A few interesting points to start with:
"The basic family budget for a two-parent, two-child family ranges from $49,114 (Morristown, Tenn.) to $106,493 (Washington, D.C.). In the median family budget area for this family type, Des Moines, Iowa, a two-parent, two-child family needs $63,741 to secure an adequate but modest living standard. This is well above the 2014 poverty threshold of $24,008 for this family type."
"Transportation expenses are based on the costs of owning and operating a car for work and other necessary trips. The National Household Travel Survey (FHA 2009) is used to derive costs based on average miles driven per month by size of the metropolitan statistical area or rural area and multiplied by the cost per mile, as provided by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS 2013)." As I've posted elsewhere, living in the public-transportation heaven that is Western Europe, we avoid these costs on our car-free diet (except vacations or weekend trips).
"EPI’s basic family budgets sum each of these components to get the total cost of living in each area across the United States. Notably, these budgets do not include several components of what might be considered a middle-class lifestyle. In particular,
they do not include any savings: There are no savings for a rainy day (e.g., job loss or unexpected medical bills), savings for retirement (except through Social Security payments), or further investments in their children (e.g., enrichment activities or college savings). Thus, these are adequate but decidedly modest family budgets." Emphasis mine.
TLDR: life in the U. S. is expensive. Mustachians can impact their COL by making wise budget choices.