A "higher tax bracket" applies to MARGINAL not TOTAL income; a raise never means less after-tax income, although it may mean you keep a smaller percentage of the amount of your raise than of your pre-raise pay.
Bull crap. Just before I got sick and could not work for nearly a year I took in $42,000. When I got sick the total I took in with government support was about $45,000. This is after a very steep pay cut.
That has nothing to do with the original claim about higher tax brackets.
So you are saying that the $10,500 that I got from a tax return is not after tax income then? I did not earn it by working more but I had it after my taxes were done.