Do "normal Americans" pay taxes? From the numbers I've seen, ~1/3 - ~1/2 of tax filers receive more money from the government than they pay. To them, "refund season" is a cause for celebration rather than a stressful event.
The on-average crossover between negative and positive net total federal income (individuals will differ because of individual circumstance beyond just income level) tax when taking into account refundable credits (most notably, but not exclusively, EITC) is a bit below the median personal income but not that far below it, so certainly lots of individual "normal" (by most reasonable definitions) Americans do not pay net federal income tax .
But even if they don't pay net federal income taxes, they probably still pay a net positive amount in a variety of state taxes, federal payroll taxes, and federal consumption taxes (e.g., gas tax.)
Withholding has everything to do with it. Why do you think $10 an hour comes down to 1200 instead of 1600/month?
You can choose to withhold more or less, but the default taxation on w-2's do generally give a bit of a refund. Better to take out too much when you don't need it than slam down a gigantic bill when at once a year later.
"Refund season" is mostly a thing because the default w2 withholdings are set at a level where you slightly overpay on each paycheque, to avoid a surprise tax bill at the end of the year.
