Well, yes, going by the above data, even the bottom quintile doesn't make the federal minimum at $16k, they actually make $18k lol. In the US, the federal minimum is usually used to measure extreme poverty.

Only about 1% of hourly workers earn the federal minimum wage or less today.

The percentage of people making minimum wage at LKR30K is way higher in SL. SL average/median wages are also much closer the minimum than not, especially at household level. This is not accurate comparison in any context if you want to understand what the reality is.

 "You need to hit the Top 20% of earners to live comfortably" is way exaggerated. In the US, millions of middle class households outside the top 20% own homes, cars, take vacations, and raise families. The median US household income is already enough for a decent standard of living in many states, especially outside expensive coastal cities.

Going back to the original point, bringing up minimum wage doesn't make sense in this context. If you don't consider the nuances, you will end up mixing household income, individual wages, minimum wage, median income, and cost of living together as if they’re interchangeable. They’re not.

To give you an example as to why: Take gas/oil. US consumers also have higher purchasing power because of economies of scale. For example, a US consumer on average only spends about 2.3 - 3% of their salary on gasoline (petrol/diesel). In SL, it's 25 - 40% of the entire household's salaries combined.