He should be using pre-tax numbers for everything - not only is he not deducting any expenses, he's comparing the final after-tax number with the before-tax minimum wage.

Still, assuming his research is accurate at best it comes out at like ~$12 per hour before tax, unless you play russian roulette on the insurance. This of course assumes that it's your full-time job, otherwise the car payments will further reduce the hourly rate.