I am well aware of the economics here.

An electrician also has to pay for his own food, healthcare, housing, family, etc. He's not a 17 year old kid who lives around the corner. I think we can all agree that you would not pay $150 to a 17 year old to come and do electrical work in your house.

I have done freelance work. I earn way more per hour than I do in my full time job. It's also specialized work (like, I dunno...electrician work). And what this kid is asking is right around what some of our mid-level software guys (BS in CS, 10 years experience) ask for when they do freelance work. So, yes, this kid is quite literally asking for what a mid-level software engineer would ask for in terms of an hourly freelance rate. He indeed does want to be paid hourly the same as them. Maybe my software engineers need to start demanding twice that to keep up with the insane inflation.