Despite moves by San Jose and San Francisco to establish wage floors above California's hourly rate, minimum-wage earners still face endless challenges trying to eke out a living in some of the nation's priciest ZIP codes. It's a struggle that unfolds largely unnoticed, even though it's right before our eyes. From the short-order cooks at restaurants to the cafeteria attendants at schools to the 20-somethings taking tickets at the movies, this minimum-wage economy is interwoven into the fabric of Bay Area life....

Getting a handle on the size of this under-the-radar community is tough. One rough estimate by University of Kentucky economist Aaron Yelowitz, who crunched numbers from the U.S. Census 2011 American Community Survey, was that of the 3,513,358 people working in the Bay Area, 12 percent -- or 421,602 -- are paid $8 or less an hour, which is legal for certain exempted employees. ...

The annual Silicon Valley Index by Joint Venture Silicon Valley, for example, shows the average income for Latinos fell to $19,000 a year, its lowest point since the survey began in 1995; it has steadily fallen 14 percent over the past five years. And food stamp participation in the valley just hit a 10-year high, while monthly rents for a two-bedroom apartment have climbed nearly to $2,000....

"We also know that unlike the myth that minimum-wage workers are mainly teenagers, a big majority of these workers are 20 years old or older," Reich said, "and that quite a few live in family households of annual incomes under $30,000."