Is $68,000 the bare-bones family income?

This post comes from Lynn Mucken at MSN Money.

The good news just keeps rolling in: 216,000 jobs added nationwide in March, and unemployment down to 8.8% from 9.8% in November, the biggest four-month decline since 1964.

And on the personal front, you're working and your spouse is working -- both full time. Life is good.

Or is it? According to a study commissioned by the nonprofit Wider Opportunities for Women, a family with two full-time wage earners and two children needs nearly $68,000 a year to afford fundamentals like housing, utilities, food, health care, transportation, saving for retirement and child care. The average such family in America makes less than that. Post continues after video.

To develop its income assessment, the report's authors examined government and other data to determine the cost of "a decent standard of shelter" in metropolitan areas across the country.

They chose a "low-cost" food plan from the nutritional guidelines of the Department of Agriculture, and calculated the cost of driving a small sedan. For health care, they calculated expenses for workers both with and without employer-based benefits.

Joan A. Kuriansky, WOW executive director, said the income projections do not take into account frills like gifts or meals out. "It's a very bare-bones budget," she told The New York Times.

According to the report, a single worker living alone needs an income of $30,012 a year -- or just above $14 an hour -- to cover basic expenses and save for retirement and emergencies. That is close to three times the 2010 national poverty level of $10,830 for a single person, and nearly twice the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

A single worker with two young children needs an annual income of $57,756, or just over $27 an hour, to attain economic stability, and a family with two working parents and two young children needs to earn $67,920 a year, or about $16 an hour per worker.

According to the Census Bureau, the median -- half above and half below -- two-earner household made $83,405 in 2009, while the average such household brought in $67,348. In other words, if the WOW formula is correct, even households of average income are struggling to afford the basics.

And if you're poor, forget it. With the national poverty level of $22,050 for a family of four, 14.3% of Americans were living below the poverty line in 2009.

"It's an index that asks how can a family have a little grasp at the middle class," said Michael Sherraden, director of the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis.

"If we're interested in families being able to be stable and not have their lives disrupted and have a little protection and backup and be able to educate their children, then this is the way we have to think," said Sherraden, who consulted on the WOW project and helped develop projections for how much income families need to devote to savings.

• Calculator: How do your finances stack up?

The New York Times interviewed a Queens couple with three small sons. Tara, a medical biller who declined to give her last name, said she earns $15 an hour, while her husband, who works in building maintenance, makes $11.50 an hour.

"We tried to cut back on a lot of things," she said. But the couple has been unable to make ends meet on their wages, and visit a food bank every Saturday. With no money for savings, "I'm hoping that I will hit the lotto soon," Tara said.

Over at The Huffington Post, where you might expect readers to have a liberal slant, the reactions to the study were quite eclectic:

• "America is no longer the land of the free and home of the brave. We are now the land of the serf and home of the CEO. The middle class will soon be gone and then we will truly be a Third World country by all standards," commented "ProgressiveOregonian​."
• "$68,000 for two-income household with kids? That's doable. Anyone can stumble on a job making $34k a year in this country," said "Bravofett."
• "Sounds like it's well past time to finish school, get a little college, keep your 'thing' in your pants/legs closed and get on with it until you can actually afford to buy something. Wants and needs. Just because you want a big-screen TV does not mean that you need it. What you need is good nutritional food, a decent place to live that's economically affordable to heat/cool, economical transportation and clothes on your back. Everything else is a want," wrote "Formontoya."

More from MSN Money:

• Down and out on $250,000 a year?
• How to become a one-income family
• How to live well on $40,000 or less
• Raising your $222,000 baby
• The 50/30/20 budget fix
• 'Rich' and struggling: Meet the Joneses