Where are you in Texas? I'm in Houston, and those numbers don't jive with my experience (since 2000, making $30 an hour in the lowest paying jobs, and making well more than that on a regular basis)
Took that job because I had been looking for a year and this was the first reasonable offer. Didn't negotiate cause I really needed the job, found out after a promotion that I was lowest paid employee in the shop by 20k.