That’s highly dependent on area. COL varies greatly around the country. In my particular area rent is roughly 1k. For someone making 15 an hour, with health insurance and taxes taken out, rent is taking almost half their income. Add even one child and that’s even harder. And working at a food service job in my area often only pays 10-12 dollars.
You still haven't answered the question...
What is the approximate annual salary you think a grocery bagger should be paid in your area of the United States?
You are saying that $15/hour is not enough, which equates to over $30,000, for bagging groceries!
So how much should they make? $40,000? $50,000?
You can't possibly think stores could pay grocery baggers that much, can you?
They can.
I haven't seen a dedicated grocery bagger since the 90s, but whatever.
As for low skill jobs, salaries don't actually scale with skill or value provided by the employee, if that was the case then social workers would be compensated far better.
Jobs are paid what it takes to reasonably retain people in them and fit their budgets. I've kept some people at very low pay for very skilled work because I knew I could keep them at that rate, I've also paid some fucking morons a higher wage than I've ever paid far superior staff in the past because there's a labour shortage and that's what it takes to keep the business running.
It is what it is.
Some of the MOST mindless labour is paid quite handsomely specifically because it's unbearably repetitive and dull. I was making far less money as a fashion stylist (aka retail sales person) in a high end clothing store, which required a rather daunting amount of product and customer service knowledge than I did when I worked in a factory making scotch tape dispensers. $7 vs $13.
Why? Because it was hard to get people to mindlessly make scotch tape dispensers at weird hours, and meanwhile EVERY young woman wanted to work at this particularly elite clothing store. I mean, that's where I met my husband, so it was worth the pay cut for me, plus I wanted to blow my fucking brains out making tape dispensers.
It's the same way chefs are generally paid total shit, because there's never a shortage of new young chefs willing to be underpaid and abused in the restaurant world.
I know a guy who made a fortune in the summers working the floor at a yeast factory doing overnights. And he got benefits!!!
How much someone gets paid for their work has so much more to do with demand than it does with the quality of their skill set. Countless PhDs can attest to that.
So sure, we can muse about what the hypothetical "grocery bagger" should be valued at, but at the end of day, what they are paid will completely depend on how much the grocery store needs them to function and how replaceable they are.
NOT how skilled their labour is.