I live in a border town in Texas. Here the minimum wage is still at $7.25. I had worked as a opthalmologist technician. Working with surgeons daily and patients daily. Wherever I got hired the minimum they would pay was always $10 with the promise of more within time and productivity. If I would get certified it would bump up $1 for every certification.
I was top of my game and had trained mostly all new hires since I was the one with most patience and experience. I would frequently talk with surgeons and learn from them to where they had wanted me to “Scribe” for them. In this particular company I worked for they had noticed that I was able to diagnose patients based on tests that I would do. I went for training where they told me that my diagnosing was correct and wanted me to diagnose patients and sign off as the doctor. (This concerned me)
I showed my skills and went above and beyond for this company but no signs of ever getting a promotion. It got to the point where I would work on most patients because my coworkers didn't want to do their part. I spoke to my manager stating that I was doing more than my pay grade and was told “too bad” needless to say that I quit that job.
Here where I live in order to get paid more you need to either know people or do unfavorable tasks. Everywhere I look on indeed the max pay is basically $15 with either BA degrees. Like what kinda shit is this!?! Nobody can live off this.