I'd estimate that a single individual with zero skills in NYC could get:
1) A receptionist job for $46k/yr (includes health insurance) [1]
2) A shared $2k/mo 2BR Jersey City apartment [2]
They'd have a take-home pay of $2960 - $1000/mo (rent) - $1000/mo in other expenses (fairly high estimate IMO).
Annual savings (with a traditional IRA) would be about $13k/yr.
It's not much, but the savings rate is almost 30% of gross income, and retirement calculators say you'll retire at 65 a multimillionaire. Surprisingly, a daily Starbucks or avocado toast (or forgetting the tax-deductible IRA contribution) really does eat into the savings numbers. And forget about having kids until you get a career upgrade.
The major risk is an increase in rent without an increase in wages. Let's investigate:
From 2012-2024, rent in Queens (not sure about JC) rose 45% ('only' 3.14% APY) [3]. Over the same period, national wages grew 47% (3.3% APY) [4]. That's good, since our individual earns 3x more wages than they pay rent. Wage growth was even higher among nonmanagers, so I don't think the growth was captured by the 1%. [5]
Overall, it looks OK to me, though the margins are thin, and you need to share an apartment. Hard to make it work for a family. I'd be curious to see some others run the numbers.
[1] https://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=receptionist+-hour+-experience...
[2] https://streeteasy.com/building/3657-kennedy-boulevard-jerse...
[3] StreetEasy Rent Index: https://streeteasy.com/blog/data-dashboard , chose Queens as it was most comparable in price to JC