Anecdotal, but when I was a kid in the 80s, minimum wage jobs were mostly part-time, and meant for teenagers living at home, bored retirees, etc.

Unskilled workers with any sort of ambition could fairly easily get 2 to 3x minimum wage and afford a very modest studio apartment.

Once manufacturing jobs went away, it seemed to kill that off. Before that, even if you didn't work in a factory, other employers had to compete for that wage level.