To me, the perversion is creating a system where it's cheaper for the thumb tack manufacturer to employ people in mindless, repetitive, soul-crushing work (no offense intended to the few people out there who love assembling thumb tacks) than to automate the task.

Minimum wage is afaict a "below this wage a person cannot support themselves" barrier.

But we really don't have a "below this level of boredom a human shouldn't be doing the job" metric. (And moreover, I'd cynically quip that it's probably in capital owners' interests to ensure that never happens, thus affording them a cheaper alternative to investing in automation -- even if the price is a substantial portion of a person's life)