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    My name is Irrelevant, because that is what I might as well be in this world. My name is Irrelevant, because there are many people like myself that are going through the same problem. I am writing about minimum wage, working hours, and the disease that plagues big businesses in these senses.
     I am a 20 year-old male, and live with my older sister. She doesn’t make me pay rent (thank the gods), but she does want me to move out soon. I work two jobs; retail and restaurant hosting. You would think that interacting with people all day is my favorite thing, would you not? It is not. I hate customer service, and I hate everybody that comes through the doors where I work. I used to be a server at a different restaurant, but my everlasting hatred for customer service complicated that. Not to mention, people left Facebook reviews about my service, and I would often receive interventions from my boss. Reviews, and interventions made my service worse. You see, I can fake a smile for customers for one minute. Anything longer, and I want to throw myself over the bridge that’s four miles away from where I live. In my current jobs, I don’t deal with people longer than thirty seconds, and that’s pushing it. You would think that working two jobs, I’d be reeling in money like nobody’s business. I don’t. I make less than one thousand dollars a month after taxes. It would cost me just that amount to get a one-bedroom apartment. Unlike a lot of people, I know that men have more taken out of their paychecks in taxes. I also know that because of taxes, I don’t make eight dollars an hour. I don’t even get to work forty hours a week with two jobs.
     How about I get a little deeper into taxes? It is an interesting concept that if my sister and I worked at the same place, for the same amount of hours, for the same pay, that I’d get less after taxes. In fact, my sister and I did a little calculation. We both claim zero dependents, and single on our forms. I took a look at our paystubs. She has 25% of taxes taken out, and I have 36%. This actually shocked me. I thought that there was a wage gap between the genders; that men make more than women. Well, the idea is actually based on gender roles in the workplace. Turns out that the gender roles are the reason for the tax gap between the genders. It is assumed that men are to work more dangerous jobs than women, those dangerous jobs are supposed to pay well, and the gender assumed to work in the more laborious area gets taxed more. Wait, here is the thing. My sister works with animals. I work with people. My sister comes home with scratches (and bite marks) on her arms every day, and I come home with a piece of lint stuck to my shoulder. I guess lint is very dangerous. It’s not. I only get taxed more due to the reproductive organs I have, not due to the lint on my shoulder. Funny.
     Don’t get me started on minimum wage. Too late. I was already getting to it. I live in Arkansas, and the minimum wage is eight dollars an hour. That’s not a lot after taxes. In the retail business I work at, the clothes are very cheaply made. I end up sewing and gluing products back together every day. There’s a lot of necklaces that cost five dollars to make, and are being sold for $19.99. I don’t get commission. If I did, I’d be rich. However, I wonder why I’m getting paid so little. I know that the business needs to make a profit, but that’s a big profit for paying us minimum wage. I’d go into detail about business conspiracy against corporate CEO’s, but that becomes a bore after one sentence.
     Then, there’s the subject of hours. I get less than twenty hours at the retail job. That’s cool, because it allows for more jobs open to the community. I’m all for that, but nobody is going to stay in this job when they realize they will never be able to climb the ladder to manager, nor will they ever get more than twenty hours.
At my hosting job, the hours are unpredictable due to shift cuts. If it gets too slow, too quickly, then I go home quickly. One day, I only worked eighteen minutes. I actually only ever work four days a week there. If I worked four hours every day, then I’d have 16 hours. That never happens. One of the hosts quit recently, and I thought I’d be working six days a week. I was excited, but I noticed we hired a new hostess just after the other girl left. Then, it occurred to me that if I accumulated more than thirty-five hours, my employer would have to pay benefits. Wait. If I only work four hours a day (max), that’d be twenty-four hours. They wouldn’t have to pay for benefits even then. What’s going on here? The thirty hour idea that if I obtain thirty hours of work, my employer will have to pay Obamacare benefits.

Here’s a fictional situation without taxes:
Jane works two jobs, 40 hours a week, and makes $8.00/hour.
In one month, she makes $1,280.
Her rent is $750.
She has no friends due to a full schedule, so she doesn’t have a roommate.
She also doesn’t have any days off to make friends.
However, her utilities are included in the rent.

She spends $25 a week on gas for her car.
Recall: She drives a lot to get to her jobs.
She works in customer service, so she takes depression medication.
Her medication is $50 a month (She got super lucky to get prescribed cheap medicine.)
She spends $70 on her phone bill.
It’s a phone with only call and text on it.
She spends about $75 a month on hygiene products.
Leaving her $185 a month for food.
She wouldn’t be able to eat if taxes were involved.

She would get a college degree in a profession of high demand.
She’d have to take out loans, of course.
In which case, she becomes homeless because she’ll have to pay off that debt while she’s looking for a job in her profession.
Why doesn’t Jane get a higher paying job then?
She is too imperfect to become a stripper, and prostitution is illegal.