The tax rates aren't even that bad - she's losing 17% of her salary to taxes. The Feds are going to give their income tax back, don't you worry, she's poor; that's about $18 per paycheck. The shitty part is working 27 hours a week (and probably spending 12 hours on the bus) in order to take home $215. What's shittier is that the job she does? It probably makes sense to McDonald's to pay her $9.50 an hour to do it but it doesn't to pay her $15. Up here? Up here you make $15 for working at McDonald's and they employ four people per shift. There's one on the drive through, there's one on the register, there's one cooking, and there's one doing everything else and the rest is robots and kiosks. Let's assume for the sake of argument that she has no viable skills. She's got diabetes. And she's one pay hike away from being roboticized out of a job. How do we solve a problem like Cierra? THAT is what is going to tear the future apart.