Nickel And Dimed Essay

1. At the beginning of Nickel and Dimed, The author sets three rules of herself; “I could not, in my search for jobs, fall back on any skills derived from my education or usual work.” , “I had to take the highest-paying job that was offered to me and do my best to hold it.”, and “I had to take the cheapest accommodations I could find, at least the cheapest that offered an acceptable level of safety and privacy.”. She sets these rules to keep herself on the right track and not make what she thinks are bad decisions. 2.

The American adult minimum wage worker has more disadvantages when there are other components involved such as class, gender, and without a doubt race. Class, race and gender are the primary components of how America is systematically organized and ran on a daily basis. Those attributes can make life a little easier or a lot harder because classism, racism, and sexism is far beyond help in the 21st century due to a history of hate in this country between all "ism's." For instance, when Barbara was working at Hearthside Café in Key West, Florida the manager began to lock one of the frequent supply closets because he said one of the German non-English speaking exchange boys were stealing items. That example along with many others related situation in the book describe how his socio-economic class, race, and masculinity intersected. The first measure was for the manager to lock up the closet in order to monitor the employees using the closet, but would that adjustment be made if the employee accused was Nigerian woman? Not leading to anything in particular but the fact that the job industry may have

In Barbara Ehrenreich's book "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by In America" we read about a middle aged journalist undertaking a social experiment of the greatest magnitude. The journalist is Ehrenreich herself and the experiment was to find out how a woman, recently removed from welfare, due to policy reform, would make it on a six or seven dollar an hour wage. The experiment itself started out as just a question in the middle of lunch with one of Ehrenreich's editors, it soon turned into a job assignment. Before starting the experiment, Ehrenreich laid out some ground rules for her to follow during the duration of the assignment. First she could never use

Living or subsistence wage is amount of income needed to maintain basic standard of living. Theoretically, this wage should bring people out of poverty if implemented. The real take home wage for most workers are far below this ‘utopic’ living wage. Absence of living wage for most workers has been recognized as a contributing factor to the difficult task of upward social mobility with resultant diminishing equality of opportunity and relative poverty for most workers in this country today. The concept of working poor is born out of this dystopic social stratification. The threat this and other social determinant factors posed to the realization of the lofty goal of ‘American Dream’ are the subject of this paper.

Minimum wage has always been an everyday issue in the United States. People argue that what they’re earning isn’t enough to help them live on a day to day basis. In 2001, the minimum wage in Florida was $5.15 the hour. Barbara Ehrenreich saw how this was becoming a greater issue as time went by, so she decided to take it upon herself and do some investigating on the topic. She decided to go undercover and work a series of low paying jobs to see if it was possible to live on those salaries. Ehrenreich wrote a novel about her experiences and titles it “Nickel and Dimed.” In a specific chapter titles “Serving in Florida”, she focuses on working as a waitress in a restaurant. There she talks about what their expectations are working at

In Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Barbara Ehrenreich tells a powerful and gritty story of daily survival. Her tale transcends the gap that exists between rich and poor and relays a powerful accounting of the dark corners that lie somewhere beyond the popular portrayal of American prosperity. Throughout this book the reader will be intimately introduced to the world of the “working poor”, a place unfamiliar to the vast majority of affluent and middle-class Americans. What makes this world particularly real is the fact that we have all come across the hard-working hotel maid, store associate, or restaurant waitress but we hardly ever think of what their actual lives are like? We regularly dismiss these people as

Through interviews with welfare workers and recipients, Hays demonstrates the high costs welfare has had on the moral, economic, physical and mental well-being of poor women and their children due to what she considers to be the conflict between the two opposing aspects of reform: work values and family values. She believes that these conflicting values and the inherent weaknesses in the Act contribute to serious and ongoing problems for welfare recipients.

“Somebody should research that.” (Ehrenreich, 2001). During the final course of her 30.00 lunch with Louis Lapham, editor of Harpers, Barbara Ehrenreich wondered how people could survive on minimum wage. She would soon be eating her words as Lapham pointed to her and said, “You”.

Nationwide government officials often wonder how this country is going to overcome unemployment, and the common misconception is through the provision of low wage jobs. By providing people with some source of income, congress believes millions will no longer depend on government aid. In actuality, however, providing minimum wage work is not going to solve such a drastic problem now, in the future, or at all for that matter. Minimum wage ($5.15), while serving at the socially acceptable pay standard, does not even compare with the nationwide ?living wage? of $10.18 (Ramisch). It is becoming increasingly more difficult to survive on such tragic wages, yet there is often little debate because it is money, and every little bit matters when it comes to paying bills.

Nickel and Dimed On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Enrenreich was written in 2001 a book that displays the struggles of individual’s living in poverty. This book illustrates the barriers of the average American living off of minimum wage to supply the needs of getting to work, providing shelter and having food to eat. Enrenreich takes on the opportunity to show how she provided ways to come up with transportation, shelter, and food. She set up a regulation for herself during this experiment by not dipping into her money account unless necessary. She also found a reasonable cheap, safe house and a decent job. The reason Enrenreich states for doing this project was to determine if she, “could match income to expenses, as the truly poor

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America written by Barbara Ehrenreich, is a book composed of Ehrenreich’s experiences working minimum wage in Florida, Maine, and Minnesota. Ehrenreich’s sheds light onto what it is like for most minimum wage workers and brings insight into what it truly is like trying to make it on $6-$7 hourly wage. Nickel and Dimed does a wonderful job of giving insight to the everyday lives of the working class and somewhat understanding their lives better. Before reading this book, I had my share of thoughts on the working class based on what I knew from growing up with family members and even my father being apart of the working class. This book reinforced a lot ideas that I had about the working class and opened my eyes into what it means to live above the poverty line.

Great discoveries always begin with great questions. Barbara Ehrenreich asked two great questions, “how does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled” and “how were the roughly four million women about to be booted into the labor market by welfare reform, going to make it on $6 to $7 an hour” (2001, p. 12). To answer the questions, Ehrenreich embarked upon a journey to discover for herself, whether she could match income to expense as a low-wage worker. In effect, Ehrenreich tested the fundamental premise of The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, also known as welfare reform, in order to determine whether those individuals formerly on welfare and largely unskilled, could earn a living wage on the

In Chapter three of “Nickel and Dimed” by Barbara Ehrenreich, one of the most significant scenarios I would say is when Barbara is talking with Caroline about her lifestyle. Caroline lives in a $825-a-month rental home with her husband and two children. They are considered middle-class because they make close to $40,000 a year, but scraping by to make ends meet. Caroline goes on to tell of her low-wage life; this includes a hotel room cleaning job in Florida, and now book keeping job in Minnesota. Also, Caroline tells Barbara of her struggles with balancing a job and children, and her own health when living in Florida.

The main idea of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich demonstrates the complications and the way on how minimum wage workers survived during 1996 in Florida, Maine, and in Minnesota when the welfare reform had an impact on minimum wage. Her goal was to experience how to settle for rent, food, and bills while working in minimum salary. The idea of this project came in mind when she discussed with Lewis Lapham, the editor of Harper’s, about future articles in magazines and then asked “How does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled? How, in particular, we wondered, were the roughly four million women about to be booted into the labor market by welfare reform going to

In Barbara Ehrenreich’s bestseller, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, the author provides a peek into the daily lives of the unskilled workers forced into the labor market by welfare reforms. She shares her experience, capturing her use of the“undercover” method of journalism to better understand the world of the minimum wage working class. Her memoir details the endeavors she took to maintain a lifestyle under circumstances just as millions of Americans would soon experience it. Parting with her desk job as a writer and essayist, she uncovers what life under the poverty line is like first hand as she enters the world of service, attempting to work some of America’s least attractive jobs. With every account, Ehrenreich concisely