Finn wasn't working construction he was a laborer. He literally walked around with a wheel barrel and cleaned up after construction workers. Don't get me wrong I'm all for the $20/hour, and obviously that wasn't much in the NYC area, even in 2004. Today it's well below the poverty line in the big coastal cities. But Finn knew it was high compared to what most people with his skill level earned on a construction site, and that there had to have been strings pulled for him to get offered a gig like that right out of the blue.