<prompt> Human: Apologies if this is off-topic, but I figured some of the decisions this person has made could be informative for the crowd here.An Open Letter to my CEO Talia Jane.Long article, but the meat of her situation is in this paragraph: I got paid yesterday 733.24, bi-weekly but I have to save as much of that as possible to pay my rent 1245 for my apartment thats 30 miles away from work because it was the cheapest place I could find that had access to the train, which costs me 5.65 one way to get to work. Thats 11.30 a day, by the way. I make 8.15 an hour after taxes. I also have to pay my gas and electric bill. Last month it was 120. Theres plenty of bad calls in there, but really the main one is living by yourself in SF on 12hr, theres just no way to make that work...  <response>: I had some issues with the letter. Mostly, I think it was a poor choice to focus so much of the letter on why she personally deserved more money because of her circumstances than focusing on why an employer should be paying all workers a salary competitive with the cost of living.Ive seen many tech and media industries hire on entry level staff as either exempt staff or exempt independent contractors to avoid paying OT while keeping these people well above a reasonable 40 hour week OT. At a strict 40, theres more freedom to either find a second job or take advantage of OT if its available. I agree with the point that she should probably consider a new career, but am also incredibly sympathetic how hard that can be if you dont have a safety net to help while you transition. This girl sounds like she does; but for many people who are just entering the working world, that may not be possible. 