Can I move to your labor market? Around here, starting wages for non-skilled laborers are around $8 to $12/hr, and for skilled labor, around $20.
I retired as a pipefitter from the Houston area and moved to Alabama over 10 years ago. The prevailing wage then was about $30 an hour. I was approached here in Al to go to work as a pipe foreman and was asked what kind of money I would need to have. After giving some thought about the area and the wages I told him somewhere in the mid $20’s, I was told they don’t pay that around here so I said too bad find someone else. I know some fitters and welders now that won’t take a job less than $35 with at least 60 hours a week plus per diam if on the road and that’s in the warm states especially in winter, they will go north in the summer where they can get $40 plus. But I am talking about pipe welders not junk iron better known as structural. Good labor will cost you but cheap labor will cost you more.