Regarding the sign guy.
There was a sign guy at my exit who was there pretty often. Strangely believe it but I often saw him at a different exit 90 miles to the north.
Pondering that I concluded that sitting with the sign was his job. Then I wondered how much could he collect? How bout $10 an hour?
I can believe he could easily collect $10 an hour at the busy exits. Two $5 scores and he could rest for that hour. Then, it is tax free so in effect it is at least $11 an hour in real money.
I have concluded that patiently and persistantly sitting with a sign at a busy exit pays far more than the minium wage
Figure one light cycle every few minutes, so roughly 15-30 cycles per hour. Of those, you might get one handout every two or three cycles, and I’ve seen multiple handouts on a single cycle.
Now, assume those handouts range from $1 to a high of maybe $20, but I suspect $1 to $5 is the average. A lot of it depends on the exit.
I figure it is reasonable to assume an income of $30 an hour on average and sometimes more than $100, some hours.
In all seriousness, I suspect it actually pays very good money, but you would have to rotate exits.