Actually I didn't specify when. The measure of if a wage is livable is going to vary greatly based on where you are of course. Around here one of the larger employers handing out 'just basic work' level jobs starts off at around $40K which is roughly a $10K increase over the last few years according to their persistent hiring sign and it's regarded locally as being decent pay.

Some very rough math would say that if you made $75K and took home say 60% of that after tax and insurance you would make about 3,750 a month. A rent or mortgage in the $1000-1500 space isn't too abnormal here leaving $2K+ for your other needs, utilities, food, etc

It's not a life of luxury level to be sure, but being someone who has gone from "milk to make mac & chz is a luxury" to actually having a few bits extra to buy some nice toys there is a cutoff out there where cash stops being the main stress in life. In my case it was somewhere around the point when I could just go buy a jug of milk without having to check if that was going to leave enough gas money for the rest of the week...