Unless you’re talking about somewhere other than the US or you have some crazy locality, this doesn’t sound right.

In the US, the employer is legally obligated to make up the difference between what the employee earned (wage plus claimed tips) and minimum wage. In fairness to your point, that’s not a big help since the federal minimum wage is a joke. If they’re failing to do that, they’re breaking the law.

Additionally, taxes should be a percentage of their earnings. How would they be ending up with zero dollar paychecks after 40 hours?

I might be lucky in that the worst reality show my wife watches is “The Challenge” which left most of its real drama behind and is now more like 30 or 40 year olds doing physical challenges.

Eh…. Of all the people I know in relationships, none of them are transactional like you’re saying and they all want to be supported. So, unless my area of the world is different, this may just be a vocal minority that you’re running into online.