The novel nickel and dimed written by Barbara Ehrenreich is a detailed account of the journalist’s experiment as a low waged worker in America. Barbara wondered how one would survive on the minimum wage of $6 or $7 an hour, especially for the women who were about to be laid off due to the welfare reform. From her long experience on covering the poverty topics in her articles, she decides to exercise her journalistic instinct to get a better perspective. Barbara expounds on the horrible living standards that most low wage earners have to live. She highlights the financial instability that forces most of her co-workers to live very unhealthy lifestyles and cannot even access basic medical aid. The author narrates her experience and relation with her coworkers, employers, and the degrading feeling from some of the jobs that she needs to survive or at least try to get through.

“Ehrenreich effectively argues that Barbara leaves the comfort of her successful life and sets out to walk in the shoes of the minimum waged Americans. She moves from Florida to Maine and Portland getting jobs as a waitress, maid, and Wal-Mart employee. Barbara gives a background of her life and experience so far concerning her exposure to low wages and chronologically narrates her experiment on the living on minimum wage. When she fell in love with her husband he was earning $4.50 per hour, her sister had her share of low-income jobs describing the struggle as the hopelessness of being a wage slave (Ehrenreich 8), and her father was a miner. At the start of her experiment, she sets rules to abide by during the trial and moves around to find minimum waged jobs she can handle documenting her experiences and observations daily.  The author uses the use of ethos to demonstrate that it is morally wrong to underpay the employees. The story also uses pathos in its narration where he creates sympathy for the working class poor. The narrative takes us through the difficulties that the workers experience in their workplace.

Almost all her coworkers were staying under a horrible living standard.  In Florida, Gail, a middle-aged woman, at some point lived her truck but then, had to move in a well-known flophouse for$250 a week, with her male friend who had begun hitting her (Ehrenreich 20). In Maine, the situation was no better, and her new colleagues were having a similar challenge. Claude was desperate to get out of the place he shared with three others including his girlfriend and other Haitian men living under similar situations. With such low wages, most workers cannot afford the deposit and rent fee that one would require to rent a decent place, and they ended up spending too much on the daily, weekly or monthly amount on places to sleep. Most of these workers can also not get help financial aid from financial institutions. This indicates that the salaries that people earn are below the required limits. As a result, most of them live under horrible conditions as they cannot afford the necessities of life.

The financial strain was not only affecting their living standards but also their financial stability. The research uncovered how single mothers who would be laid off would try to survive, and the book reveals how even single women without kids were having such a tough time just getting by — trying to make ends meet with a very tight budget forces these workers also to have poor diets. Without a house, poor people cannot manage to make homemade meals and with a tight budget balanced diet maybe expensive so most survive on fast foods or eating at work. The society’s structural-functionalism that enables certain groups the structure to aid in individuals stability is not formed among the poor (Kimmel et al. 201). The financial instability or lack of finances forces workers to miss the medical care they deserve.  These workers most live from paycheck to paycheck with nothing left over for saving; hence, they have to settle for unsuitable lifestyles like getting clothes from the thrift stores, putting up with horrible roommates for lack of option, and working through pain that needs medical attention.

Barbara describes her experience of low wage labor she had to endure during her experiment.  Although she had a Ph.D. and most low wage jobs are considered unskilled jobs. She admits to discovering that no matter how small a job seemed, no one was in unskilled realty. The working hours are also exhausting and sometimes on the low waged jobs are not even enough to last to the next paycheck, so she needed to get another job just as many other workers do. Working seven days a week leaves no time for a poorly paid worker to rest.

As a waitress, she demonstrated how customers paid them little attention and sometimes even failed to tip yet they relied on such tips and sometimes made unreasonable demands. Throughout the book, she shows how low-income workers work very hard to try and makes ends meet to no avail. The long working hours, the odd jobs they have to do like scrubbing someone else’s toilet and the poor conditions they work under but are still inferior despite their hard work.  She shows how these workers help each other, “But she brought me a sandwich for lunch. It is because I’d told her I was living in a motel almost entirely on fast food, and she felt sorry for me (Ehrenreich 90). Most employers do not wholly appreciate what these workers do, the long hours they work for them and the odd and sometimes demanding jobs they perform. The society also looks down upon the poor despite the hard work they are putting into making their ends meet.

Barbara profoundly details her experimental experience in the life of a low waged income woman in this book. She explains the struggles that the minimum paid people have to endure. At some point, she relates to the battle, and it is incredibly overwhelming even for her. It was supposed to be journalistic research, but all the actual manual labor she had to put into the investigation wore her out just it did all other co-workers. The book gives the reader a clear image of the struggle the low-income earners have to endure in their everyday lives. The book shows most middle class, upper-class citizens and employers how their workers hard and how important and vital it would be to show them some appreciation and respect. The book through the experience also shows how hard these poor people work and that they are not in such living conditions for being lazy. This article is essential as it shows the wage differences that exist between the upper-class citizens and poor people. As a result, it can help in rectifying the situation in future.

Works Cited

Ehrenreich, B. and Christiansen, J. Nickel and Dimed. Moline Public Library, 2007.

Kimmel, Michael S et al. Sociology Now. Allyn & Bacon, 2011.

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