I recently graduated high school in May, and I feel extremely burnt out and tired of my construction job. I have worked with this contractor (just him and I) since I was 17 and still in vocational high school. I have been with him for about 9 months now. I started at 15 dollars an hour for the first two months I worked for him as a “trial period” and was then given a raise to $17 an hour. I was happy with that at the time, but since then, I have gained lots of technical skills, and I can generally work on my own most of the time, and I often do work on my own for at least 8-16 hours of the work week. I have also gained a lot of responsibility, driving my own truck to pick up materials, and I have even been asked to supervise subcontractors on my own. We did an evaluation recently, and upon asking if he would be open to giving me a raise, he said that that he wanted only to give raises at the end of each fiscal year. I feel very discouraged, undervalued, and worn out. He is a very nice guy, but I am just at a loss for what to do. Some stores near me pay 16 an hour, which comparatively is discouraging, considering I am so tired when I get home I can rarely spend time awake with my family or pursuing hobbies. I have even started therapy to help me work through these helpless feelings. It upsets me to think I am going to have to do this for the rest of my life. How do I get out of the cycle? What should I do? How can I stop feeling like this?