In the US it’s usually 2 part time jobs or 1 ft and 1 or or 1 ft and gigs. Regardless the idea isn’t that they make enough with one job and get spending money from the other. It’s basically that you need to make as much as the top 15% of earners in the US to be ok in most areas. So we work as hard as we can to survive
Big cities like Beijing or Shanghai in China are much worse, lower wages and rents north of $1000 and salaries of about $1350
Workers cram into one apartment just to have a place to sleep
You must not have ever seen a couple of folks making min wage renting a room just to survive. America may not be quite at that disparity level but it is rapidly approaching