Nobody should be taking a bus for an hour to a minimum wage job. One of the reasons a job is MW is that they are everywhere.
You don’t commute that far for minimum wage.
You don’t commute that far for minimum wage.
Due to how many North American cities are designed with urban sprawl and separation of living areas (suburbs) and productive areas (industrial/office zoning laws) it should actually be the norm to have a lengthy commute to work.
Hell, I live in a suburb with quite good public transport and it would take me almost 30 minutes to go to the grocery store by bus.
When I was a teenager and had no car, it took me about an hour to get to my minimum wage job by bus due to transfers. Once I could afford a car (because I lived with mum and dad and could save) that commute got cut to 20 minutes.
Anecdote, not data, but
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/economy/low-pay-long-p...
You could argue the person in the story should get jobs closer to home, but it is probably more common than you think.
One of them used to stay really late at night at a Denny's because the buses didn't run when he needed to get to work, so he would spend the night (basically) at a Denny's so he was at work on time.