Anecdotally, this is not true.

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.

If you don't have a car, and the bus runs infrequently, I bet many people spend an hour getting somewhere.

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.

You're right, we probably should have said longer, maybe an hour and a half. I definitely know people that commute a long time for low wages. Or did. They're in better places, now.

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.

If you work in one of the US tech hubs, ask your janitorial staff how long their commute is.