Look at the COL and decide. Someone making $20 an hour will take home about $16. How far do they live from you? Can they reasonably afford to commute to work everyday when one hour of work = 3-4 gallons of gas? Can they reasonably afford rent, private health insurance (unless you are paying), utilities, cell phone, etc on that pay? If no they they will probably jump at the next higher paying job that comes along.