I didn't know that about union labor costs. That's definitely a force multiplier with some pretty devastating effects.

I do know that I've got someone coming to look at my oil burner today and their labor cost is $90/hour. Sheesh. I wonder how much of that goes to the worker?

When we owned a flower shop, it was eye-opening how much it cost to pay someone a living wage. We paid $15/hour for a qualified designer (minimum wage was around $7 at the time) but by the time the payroll company finished adding in all the required extras, they got around $11 and we paid almost $30. So no surprise that we started doing all the work ourselves. I'd use the vacation time from my other job to deliver flowers around Valentine's and Mothers' Day.

After a couple years we sold that business with a hearty "Never Again!"