I am a truck driver, local route, and the only one in my state from this company. I was hired on a year ago at a lower than market wage because I was a new driver. That was fine, I needed the experience. I was told by the hiring manager that after a year, my wage would increase by $7 an hour. Seemed like a great deal to me. That was the market average for this area for my type of work. After 8 months he gave me a “raise” where in reality he just gave me more work. I bring home on average 1 dollar a day more but I work an extra day. He states that the owner will just fire people if they fight his wage offers. So I didn’t. It’s been a year now and I asked him about it, he says “blah blah blah Covid, less money, blah blah blah” even though my work load has increased during the pandemic. Now he is refusing my calls and all attempts to even reach him. On top of all of this, it’s been a year since my semi has been serviced causing safety concerns that I have brought up 6 times over the last 4 months. I can’t call in sick ever because I’m the only person who can do the job unless someone flies in from out of state, if something happens to my truck that makes it either unsafe to drive or illegal, I’m guilted into driving it and if I even try to get in touch with my boss or the dispatcher I will be ghosted. A few weeks ago I got sick and was instructed by the state government to stay home and not bother getting tested due to lack of tests available. I relayed this to my boss and he just ignored me, forcing me to work. I’m tempted to go to HR about this but I don’t know if they can do anything about my wage. Also the trucking industry is super toxic and they don’t care what happens to the drivers because the responsibility lies on them no matter what. I want to stay with this job because it allows me to study for my masters degree while I’m docked and not doing anything and the benefits are good but at my current wage I can hardly survive. I have a wife who can’t work and a 1 year old daughter. Inflation is killing us. What should I do?