People act like $30/hr is high. Note this would be the mayor of NYC, so it would be raised for NYC only if he got his way. The cheapest place you can get to live on your own there I am finding is 2600 a month. So say you made 30/hr. That's $62,400 working 40 hours a week. Take out Federal/state/city taxes ends up being around $46,112 take home. The place costed $31,200. Making the lowest rent findable in Manhattan 2/3 of $30/hr.

They wouldn't be able to get approved to even live there if they tried. They would have to rent a room from someone else with a 4 bedroom place renting to 4 people for around $1200/ month. And share bathrooms/kitchen/living space with people. And they would still struggle to get by if they paid for health insurance, travel costs to and from work, food, and the whole living crap.

$30 isn't radical for NYC, it's like base needed salary... And hope you have a good stable relationship with someone else making the same, then maybe you can get your own place together, just don't do something stupid like get pregnant because you can't afford to not go to work, and can't afford to put them in daycare so you would both have to uproot and move real quick finding jobs elsewhere.