Originally Posted by operator

A halfway decent mechanic with several years experience will be making between $13-$15/hour here most likely. Assuming you are guaranteed year round employment that works out to be about $750-$900'ish per paycheck, take home. Rent for one person, one bedroom anywhere from $5-$800 depending on where you live. That leaves about a minimum of 1 paycheck a month on stuff like food and other things. If you don't own a car and ride your bike everywhere and don't have a family to take care of that's plenty enough to live on.

The people who do this job like it, or are only doing it temporarily until they can get a "real job".