I got $5.35 working at a plastics factory, making house siding and PVC pipe. I still have a scar from slashing a finger open with a hacksaw while we were starting up a siding line... basically, I would cut semi-molten PVC siding that was moving about a foot a second, because it was still too warped to make it into the cooling tanks, much less the cutters. Had to keep cutting, too, despite my injury.

The factory and manufacturing work that everyone seems to miss these days is profoundly unsafe.