Exactly. I could push a broom at Home Depot for that much.

You'd need to be in a large city for Home Depot to pay that, and even then in places like Austin and especially Boise, many people make less than that per hour. $10 an hour after a bachelors degree isn't uncommon in economically depressed parts of the US.

I drove by a Home Depot near Utica, NY advertising $15/hr a few months ago.

Utica isn’t exactly a big city or prosperous place.

No you don't. I'm from a small town in Ohio and my first job was at Home Depot for $12 an hour 6 years ago.

Minimum wage is around $12 here in MA, if I recall correctly. There’s been talk of increasing it to $15.

It just became $11 in 2017 and that's only for non-service workers. Tipped workers still only make $3.75 and STILL have to pay taxes as if they were fully compensated. Tipping needs to go.

I have literally worked putting paper into boxes for $13/hour. Granted that was decent money, but it definitely made me a lot more loyal and willing to look the other way when the company needed a favor.