Jordan is finally getting back on his feet after visiting the emergency room several times over the past year with bouts of severe spinal headaches, dizziness, and a thyroid storm. The ER visits left him with about $2,000 in medical bills. It’s going to take a minute: He makes $7.25 an hour working as a cashier at Dollar Tree.
Before I called Jordan, who lives in Kentucky, to talk about what his life is like making the minimum wage, he explained to me that I’d need to dial him on a Kindle tablet. He can’t afford to fix his broken phone at the moment. “It’s not exactly a long-term solution,” he says. But for the time being, it’ll have to do.