my dog after a hard day’s work
Working most minimum wage jobs requires a lot of changes to your behavior while you’re working, but it also puts constraints on your body. You’re expected to be in a specific place doing specific things for a specific amount of time, and you’re expected to look a specific way while doing this. This can include smiling and greeting every person you see, wearing a uniform or following a dress code, and (my least favorite, personally) staying on your feet for your entire shift and not letting on that your feet are throbbing and you might have a few blisters now.
While you go into a job knowing that you will be expected to perform certain tasks so you can get paid, you also learn quickly that the way you look is treated as a reflection of the company you work for, and there are rules about how you can appear. A lot of jobs don’t allow facial piercings or hair that is dyed unnatural colors, and you have to maintain a balance of not smelling too badly but not smelling to nicely either (wearing too much perfume or cologne). For women, a lot of work places require that sexualized parts of the body are covered, such as breasts, shoulders and upper legs. You will most likely not be able to dress or act the way you normally would outside of work, as your personality and look has to be what your boss wants it to be, and the plainer you are the better since you are in a serving position.
There is physical pain as a result from the work, but there is also emotional pain that I think comes from having to alter yourself and your body for the work place. Emotional labor has an effect on emotional health, and being expected to alter how you look and feel in order to serve others gets exhausting. But unfortunately, many people do not have a choice in the matter, because in this world you need money to survive, and for most of us you need a job to make money. Our personalities and bodies are compromised and altered for the sake of profit, and generally the more money you have the more freedom you have. So minimum wage jobs offer the minimum of self-expression and choice in regards to your body and your behavior.
Unruly Bodies 
I completely agree with this post since I work in retail. It is expected that we dress a certain way every day on the job and every minute of your short break is timed to the T. It is really frustrating that we are expected to always act a certain way while serving customers even though we hardly get the same respect in return. This requirement can even be passed onto higher professional companies when its required for men to wear suits and women to dress in heels and skirts to work and have to stand on their two feet for a full work day. Its very frustrating but like you said, we need it for survival and for th money 😦
I wrote about a similar topic (I work in retail). A lot of times the emotional toll that working in the service industry will take on your body. There is a constant expectation that we behave in a robotic manner and our bodies are supposed to be well oiled machines at all times. When you say that you’re tired, you’re accused of being lazy or complaining. I totally agree with the pay rate of people in service industries, we are yanked to and fro to meet company expectations but we are not properly compensated for complying. Personally at my job there is a really big focus on what we can and can’t wear, which I understand to a certain extent since it is a children’s store, but it really is up to the managers discretion and personal taste whether or not your outfit is “appropriate”. The mental back and forth we go through trying to please everyone definitely takes a toll on our physical bodies.
Having spent many years working as a waitress and in customer service, I can totally identify with your post. By the time I was 17, I was dealing with an issue with my knee from being on my feet all of the time working. The physical pain is one thing, but I would just be drained from having to act pleasant all the time, even when customers would be rude or raise their voices at me. The emotional toll was huge. The jobs that pay the least seem to be the ones that cost the most in a lot of ways, at least that is how it has been for me over the years.