Am I offering good pay for my hired position?

1st no matter what if there is not enough net profit to pay more, you cannot afford it

if you are not paying your self the same wage at least,, then it is fair

if you are not paying your self or somewhere way less than that...  then until you match their pay for your self you cannot pay more   (many business owner do not make enough to pay them selves anything and often work for many hours weeks and months for no pay) 

as well you said nothing about skilled they have to do the work - plumbing , electrical plastering carpet framer etc  

 I do similar work rebuild old mobile homes to like new
I pay my highly skilled helper and my self $16.00 per hour cash 

not being able to hire people.... is not the pay
it is because in today's world fewer and fewer people are willing to work 
and hard work even less 

the fact is there is less and less profit in every business and often none and just wages with no profit 
and 

I can line you up with dozens and dozens of people needing to hire people but cannot find reliable people ... and pay is not a fix they just do not exist..

if you hire a bad worker and pay him $18.50 he is still a bad worker. if you pay the same bad worker $30.00 a hour he still is a bad worker
if you hire a good worker at $12.00 per hour he is a good worker if you pay him $19.00 is is still a good worker 

the shortage of people with good work ethics is on going 
-------------------
bad workers will tell you if you pay more they work work harder,, nope they do not know how to work hard.
under paying good workers will not make bad workers out of them ,, they just find another job 

the most important thing for good workers is not to have to carry the load for a bad worker 

better to not have enough help than have bad help 

I do intensive manual labor for quite a bit less than that. Been doing it for years. In my neck of the woods I still make above average. I can live off the pay and my boss is a good guy so I don't mind it.
If you treat your workers right I believe you'll find the right people.

If you truly do run a business as you claim, then any business man/woman would have the capacity to do thorough market research for their industry in their geographical location. I doubt a real business man/woman would ask teenagers and bored adults on Yahoo Answers if we think some arbitrary number is a fair or good hourly rate.

If the set up work includes any finishing work such as hooking up plumbing etc, the wage you are offering is a bit low. My guess is that the unemployment rate in VT is low, even in the current environment. An additional problem is that with the additional $600 that the feds add to the state unemployment, they probably make more sitting home on their butt than they would working for you.

Maybe the way you are advertising the open position is not working, not reaching people willing to work.  Whatever you're currently doing to advertise the openings, do something different (sorry, I don't have any specific recommendations as to what to do, just that what you're currently doing isn't working)