Mike
Amber Marie, a 23-year-old high school English teacher, found herself in a unique teaching moment when she observed one of her students receiving a real-world lesson on the economy. The teenager had been going through a tough time, and upon striking up a conversation, Amber discovered that it was all linked to the girl’s first paycheck.
As the student received her earnings, she had an eye-opening moment, realizing the disparity between the amount her employer paid and the reduced sum that ended up in her pocket due to taxes.
This incident served as a reminder that taxes are a part of our lives from the very beginning, and Amber decided to share a video in which she explained how her student had come to this realization.
“I had a student walk into my class today and she was so angry. I could tell right off the bat she was not in a good mood”
“I’m like, ‘Hey, girl, what’s up?’ And she’s like, ‘I can’t even today, this is the worst day of my life. Nothing is worth anything anymore.’ And I’m like, ‘What do you mean, what happened?’ She’s like, ‘Well, I got my first job last week and I worked 32 hours.’ I’m like, ‘Wow, 32 hours is a lot for a high school student, but that’s good.’ And she’s like, ‘I finally got my first check. And I’m supposed to be getting paid $17 an hour, for 32 hours. I did the math, I know how much money I was supposed to make. And then I got my check. And it was way less.’”
“‘The taxes took up almost half of my entire check. I knew that people hate taxes, But I didn’t realize that they were taking hundreds of dollars out of every paycheck.’ I was like, ‘Oh yes girl, welcome to America.’ And then she was saying how it doesn’t even make it worth it to work anymore, because the amount of work that she’s putting in does not correlate to the amount of money that she’s getting. And she asked me, ‘Do they do this to your check too?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, they do to everybody’s check. Everyone gets taxed.’”
“She was like, ‘I think I’m going to quit my job and I don’t think I’ll ever get a job again because that’s insane. Why am I working to only get half of the money I made?’ Girl, preach it because I get it. It made my heart so sad for her because I knew how excited she was to get this job and knew all the things that she wanted to buy when she finally got her first paycheck, and how excited she was to finally have her own money. And then to realize that she’s not going to be getting paid what she thought she was getting paid. It hurts. I remember my first check, I remember the heartbreak.”
@amber.mariee44 Why we need to be teaching high schoolers ab taxes 😪 #teacher #teachersoftiktok #teachertok #teachersbelike #teacherlife #teachertiktok #taxes
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