Same here. I'm a web developer in the US and I make $17 an hour... and that's at a major, international corporation. I think you and I are being shorted.
That's insane. I made more than that as an intern in college writing code. We paid our current interns more than that the last time I checked. I don't know what your background is, but get your LinkedIn profile polished and you should be getting multiple recruiter emails a week inviting you to interview. That's where the market is right now.
For reference, that's considerably less than the inflation-adjusted starting pay (roughly $22 USD now) at my first software job in 1996 doing QA work.
Big time, but it also depends on the area of the country you live in. Pay in the midwest is a lot lower for example, but the cost of living is a lot lower as well, whereas in Silicon Valley, it is not unheard of for people to make close to $100/hour (although that is somewhat rarer).
Even in the midwest, though, $17/hour (about $35,000/yr) is WAY low. Most devs in the midwest START at about 50,000 - 60,000 for entry-level.
$100/hr comes out to about $200k/yr. Only the developers at the top echelon make that kind of money.