Goodreads | Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

topics	replies	last activity
woof.	1	12/09/2007 06:46PM

Renee rated it:

07/30/07

Read in July, 2006

Here's a down and dirty assessment of Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich:

First the positive:
- Interesting premise: writer decides to try to live on the wages that unskilled workers (waitresses, home/hotel cleaners, department store [Walmart, for instance] clerks) earn to see if she can do it and see if she learns anything in the process.
- She exposes some very unethical (even illegal) employer practices such as withholding a worker’s first paycheck until the second pay per...more Here's a down and dirty assessment of Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich:

First the positive:
- Interesting premise: writer decides to try to live on the wages that unskilled workers (waitresses, home/hotel cleaners, department store [Walmart, for instance] clerks) earn to see if she can do it and see if she learns anything in the process.
- She exposes some very unethical (even illegal) employer practices such as withholding a worker’s first paycheck until the second pay period.
- She notes some of the problems experienced by low-wage workers that aren’t (or may not be) experienced at higher levels of employment (e.g., lack of healthcare benefits, being unable to live in an apartment because of cost-prohibitive security deposits, almost universal drug testing as prerequisite to employment, etc.)
- Funny anecdotes about her experiences on “the other side.”
- She appears to have done some outside research besides her own experiences and observations.

Then the negative:
- The reader recognizes immediately that this writer is a liberal, specifically a bleeding-heart socialist. To those of us on the right, this is a red flag: we know what in the end she’ll advocate. Besides, the dreck that comes from that ideology is just annoying.
- She makes comments about the nurturing aspects of smoking that I find vomit-worthy. Part of the whole getting-out-of-poverty thing is making some good choices – continuing an expensive nicotine habit isn’t one of them. Ms. Ehrenreich breezes past this obvious expense and instead philosophizes about it. Gaack.
- Ditto for children. I never buy the whole thing that poor people can’t (read: don’t have the brain-power or self-control to) limit their reproduction. Children are expensive and in having them (in a marriage or not) without thought to all the costs associated with merely keeping them alive, not to mention THEIR future, people are essentially dooming them to the same life and poverty that they currently experience. I mean, if you as a parent don’t have reliable healthcare it’s one thing, but your kids will definitely need it – so why are you jeopardizing their health? Oh, yeah – Medicaid.
- She has a permissive attitude toward drug use – and even admits to “an indiscretion” of that sort during her experiment. She buys and uses products that mask or flush evidence of the drug use. That whole business is not going to lend credibility to your whole argument – whatever the argument is. And drugs are an expense.
- She always has a car (“rent-a-wreck” in her words) during her experiment. Expense. Now, some of the locations she works do demand personal transportation, but she purposely steers clear of big cities with public transportation. Hmm.
- She never tries to coordinate/share living arrangements and pool resources. After all, she DOES have her limits in this experiment!
- The biggest problem with her experiment is that it is just an experiment – she can return to her comfy upper middle class life, while demanding that the government do something about the minimum wage and poverty.

Yeah, I could go on, but you get the general picture. I would give this read a C+ - readable, but there are some reservations.
...less

Like this review? yes (20 people liked it)

5 comments

Cait rated it:

04/23/08

recommends it for: anyone who has never worked a demeaning job

The two sentence summary of this book is: PhD and respected writer decides to find out how the other two-thirds live. To this end she goes undercover as an unskilled laborer at three minimum wage jobs (waitress, Wal-mart employee and Merry-Maid) each in a different city, each for one month.

Things I liked:
The premise.

Things I hated:
1. Her shocked tone of discovery. Newsflash! Living on minimum wage is hard/nigh on impossible! Educated people have it pretty easy comparatively! Entry l...more The two sentence summary of this book is: PhD and respected writer decides to find out how the other two-thirds live. To this end she goes undercover as an unskilled laborer at three minimum wage jobs (waitress, Wal-mart employee and Merry-Maid) each in a different city, each for one month.

Things I liked:
The premise.

Things I hated:
1. Her shocked tone of discovery. Newsflash! Living on minimum wage is hard/nigh on impossible! Educated people have it pretty easy comparatively! Entry level minimum wage work is kind of demeaning!

2. Her colonial-anthropologist-among-the-natives style that came across (to me) as super patronizing. Don't these people understand that easy office jobs are just on the other side of a college degree? Don't they understand history enough to fight for unions?

3. Her total shock that no one found her out as an educated person! Working in a diner in the next town over, she was never recognized! Shock!

4. This mostly just lost her style points, but she made a point to always have a working car (it wasn't HER car, but she rented a working car in every city she went to) and had a thousand (two thousand?) dollars of start-up capital to pay first and last months rent and eat while waiting for a job. I think her cover story (which again, she was hurt when no one asked for/cared about) was that she was a newly divorced former stay at home wife, on her own for the first time- so I guess it's conceivable she would have had a little cushion- but I would have found it much more interesting if she'd actually committed to the premise a little more. Especially because she was there such a short time. I know that working minimum wage jobs isn't fun, but couldn't you commit to more than a month? What do you find out in a month?

5. This is really the one that gets me- at the end of her time with the Merry Maids she "comes out" to her co-workers, telling them that really, she's a PhD! And writing a book! The main response is "So you won't be here to cover your shift tomorrow." Once again she is shocked and hurt! But man, if there was ever a teaching moment, she's been working with these women at back-breaking, soul sucking work for no pay and she's surprised that they're worried about how they're going to get though the next day? AGH.

(And also, WTF was she spending money on? I'm also a single healthy person with no debt or dependents and a working car, and I spend less than a thousand dollars a month sustaining my life style. I don't think I live THAT cheaply.)

It just seemed like she was writing from this privileged bubble of white upper-crust academia that I didn't know existed. She was presenting as astonishing findings what I assume to be facts of life for a majority of people.

So. That is why I didn't like this book. My mom, on the other hand, who has actually worked as a waitress to support herself, loved it....less

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

5 comments

David rated it:

02/09/08

Read in February, 2008

TO GET TO THE POSITIVE REVIEW, SCROLL DOWN TO THE HOWEVER IN CAPPS. Id heard a lot about this book, interviews of the author, etc. and recommended it a few times before even reading it. I was pretty disappointed for the first 200 pgs (223 pages in total) as early in the preface, ehrenreich admits that for her "experiment" in taking blue-collar jobs in the hope of affording blue-collar rent, she allots her self 1)a rental car throughout the entire experiment, 2)periodic visits to her h...more TO GET TO THE POSITIVE REVIEW, SCROLL DOWN TO THE HOWEVER IN CAPPS. Id heard a lot about this book, interviews of the author, etc. and recommended it a few times before even reading it. I was pretty disappointed for the first 200 pgs (223 pages in total) as early in the preface, ehrenreich admits that for her "experiment" in taking blue-collar jobs in the hope of affording blue-collar rent, she allots her self 1)a rental car throughout the entire experiment, 2)periodic visits to her house, 3)the buying of food outside of her budget whenever hungry, and 4)hospital visits outside of her budget whenever sick or injured. Oh, and 5)a laptop computer. By definition, no matter what she does from this point, she will not get close to poverty. Its like "Oh, Ill play poor, only without any of the inherent dangers." Furthermore, throughout her experiment, she does and assumes a number of naive things, such as 1) takes a unit in a trailer park for more than $100 more in rent per month than apartments available, for the pure experience. Also this move puts her 30 miles away from work, making her depend on her rental car. She consults with apartment search agents instead of doing her own hoofwork. She lives off a diet of fast-food that not only is unhealthy, but costs more than staples from the groceary store would. Her depiction of her life as struggling and her momentary delusions of proletariansism are pretty insulting to me, as Ive had some meager experiences in poverty. I could only imagine that the persistantly poor would either be downright offended, or view the book as an attempt at comedy. HOWEVER- in the last 20 pages, she points out all the mistakes she made, her incorrect assumptions and flaws of methodology. Then writes a concise and thoroughly foot-noted argument for the economic paradox that faces those at the bottom of the ladder. If only this material, supplanted and expanded, had been interspersed throughout the account, I would have enjoyed the book in its entirety. The fact that it became a NY Times bestseller suggests that a number of affluent people at least purchased this book, which is important. If even a third of those people read the book, then the merit of her experiment lies here. While a good read and a rich source of secondary sources for me, I would recommend this book only to anyone who is completely ignorant about poverty, or knows or is related to people who are completely ignorant about poverty. This is the books target audience, and to this audience it is extemely relevant. ...less

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

add a comment

Elizabeth rated it:

04/01/08

Read in March, 2008

During the wave of welfare reform BE tries to see if the math works-can you survive by just getting a job. She tries in 3 locations to see if income (from waiting tables, housecleaning and working in Walmart) can match expenses-mostly rent and food. Its an interesting personal account on working hard in America. She analyzes herself a lot and also introduces us to others trying to get by in America. She is very prideful that she has never hired someone to clean her house. I on the other han...more During the wave of welfare reform BE tries to see if the math works-can you survive by just getting a job. She tries in 3 locations to see if income (from waiting tables, housecleaning and working in Walmart) can match expenses-mostly rent and food. Its an interesting personal account on working hard in America. She analyzes herself a lot and also introduces us to others trying to get by in America. She is very prideful that she has never hired someone to clean her house. I on the other hand think that if you have two incomes or even a big one then it is good to help employ others by doing that. Many internationals think Americans are arrogant by trying to do it all themselves instead of employing others. Okay it doesn't pay enough and its back breaking, if we got rid of that job choice its not like all those thousands of ladies would get good office jobs then.
Good examples but the end the only thing she leaves us with is that we should feel SHAME for holding others down by wanting cheap meals, cheaply cleaned houses and cheap clothes. Okay, shame is a beginning but what good does it do for those who are working seven days a week and totally damaged?
I had my own Nickel and Dimed experience: we moved when I was already pregnant. I was planning on being a stay at home mom but had a few months to kill. I didn't want to look for a good job (time consuming) and then tell them after a while-guess what I am leaving when the baby comes (emotionally consuming) so I did the fast thing-I got a job at Subway. I made $7 an hour and got to see how people to try to make it. The turnover was horrible. I felt bad telling them in the beginning that I would only be there for 5 months-by the end I was the longest employee besides the manager and one other lady. People had sad stories-out of prison, child support to pay, living on the beach, no health care but can't miss a day of work when sick or can't pay rent. It was very eye opening. However one big thing that is needed in addition to a living wage and health care-financial education: my coworkers would on payday-add onto their tattoo, buy beer and cigarettes and lotto tickets, pay the bills, pay back a friend who they borrowed money from for cigarettes and then have nothing for the next week before pay day. I wanted to scream-leave your tattoo and 'pleasures' for after the bills and saving but BE has an interesting thought on smoking in the book too. ...less

Like this review? yes

7 comments

Max rated it:

02/15/08

recommends it for: Lay sociologists who like lefty nonfiction

Following a long tradition of immersion journalism, Ehrenreich sheds her identity of middle-upper class writer and goes to work waitressing, cleaning houses, and slogging a Wal-Mart job to show that it is near impossible to survive in the late-dot-com boom of Clinton's America. What makes her experience interesting is her voice, but what takes away significantly from her attempt is the constant reminder that she is a wealthy, highly educated, white American and that she is lucky to have her supp...more Following a long tradition of immersion journalism, Ehrenreich sheds her identity of middle-upper class writer and goes to work waitressing, cleaning houses, and slogging a Wal-Mart job to show that it is near impossible to survive in the late-dot-com boom of Clinton's America. What makes her experience interesting is her voice, but what takes away significantly from her attempt is the constant reminder that she is a wealthy, highly educated, white American and that she is lucky to have her support networks. While I appreciated her disclosure (and it is frequent) of her clandestine real-life, it also served to undercut much of her perspective about what it is like to live at that level for life. It is most notable when she tries to organize the Wal-Mart employees towards a union. She always has the option of going back to her own life - as hard as she commits to her research project she will always know that there is the safety net of her wealth and education. But for the millions of working poor, they will not buck the unfair system, they will not refuse to take a drug test, they will suffer whatever base humiliation presented because all they know is life isn't fair and they have limited options. Ehrenreich doesn't blame the working poor for their plight - far from it - but often her explanatory sections read like the Bwana roughing it with the natives. She certainly has guts - her living situations were desperate at best, and she put her body through the ringer to suffer the daily stressload that comes with working for near minimum-wage. But because she does not deeply explore the lives of the people she comes into contact with, her story does not read like a modern-day Working; it does not truly reveal the entire life of the Worker. She tries to engage her fellow employees in conversation about how they make their ends meet, but after she reveals her true mission to them it is at the end of her experiment and she doesn't follow them home to really explore how single mothers handle child care, how Gen X kids become managers and escalate and how they come to learn how to exploit people. She relays some of one conversation she had with the man who owned the cleaning company, but it was still while she was "under-cover". Ehrenreich has written a light travelogue to being a working poor person, a month-long foray into the jungle. It is by no means a ethnography.
...less

Like this review? yes

2 comments

Abby rated it:

04/24/07

bookshelves: culture

recommends it for: Anybody and everybody.

I would love to write a flowery description of how much I loved this book, how vital it is for understanding our society, how every person under the American sun should read it, but I think simpler is better here.

Barbara Ehrenreich left the comforts of her upper/middle-class lifestyle for a story. She was brainstorming casually with her editor and discussing how difficult it must be for working class single mothers to raise their children on minimum wage. So she decided to work these minimum...more I would love to write a flowery description of how much I loved this book, how vital it is for understanding our society, how every person under the American sun should read it, but I think simpler is better here.

Barbara Ehrenreich left the comforts of her upper/middle-class lifestyle for a story. She was brainstorming casually with her editor and discussing how difficult it must be for working class single mothers to raise their children on minimum wage. So she decided to work these minimum wage jobs, without any of her former comforts (such as the money in her banking accounts) and see just how liveable the living wages are.

She worked as a waitress, maid, and most notably, Walmart girl. The stories she tells along the way are sad and disheartening: tales of co-workers who can't afford to put the first and last month on an apartment so they're forced to live in cheap motels and pay daily (which is basically all they make during the day), the lack of humanity and empathy the supervisors have for their workers, the mundane existence of literally living paycheck to paycheck.

The part that Ehrenreich can't get over is this concept of the "invisible worker". How can a worker be invisible when they're so THERE, so prevalent, clearing your dishes, washing your floors (under severe scrutiny, in some cases), clearing the pile of clothing you dumped on the floor of Walmart? Because Americans in the upper/middle-class WILL IT SO. These workers are invisible because they're no longer on the same level. They're barely human. Ehrenreich's accounts of working at Walmart are depressing at best, horrifying at worst. The way those women treated Ehrenreich, as some form of escape from their own miserable existences, made me want to go back and apologize to every retail worker who had to straighten my discarded clothing in the fitting room.

This book is so simple but so powerful. Ehrenreich doesn't try to impress with her language; she's a brilliant sociologist, but her work doesn't need to be flaunted. She makes it easy for the reader to understand the worlds she lived in because she HAS to. It's a universal message. As Sean Morceau says, "If we start today, maybe we can affect a change".

Please read this....less

Like this review? yes (6 people liked it)

add a comment

Ben rated it:

05/16/07

Read in May, 2005

This book is about the experience of a journalist who tries surviving for a few months by working several minimum wage jobs, like waitressing, housekeeping, and working at Wal-Mart, and her thoughts on some of the things that are messed up about the way businesses work. Her story confirms what I already suspected. That it sucks to be poor. It is pretty alarming, though, to read about the life conditions of some of her co-workers. I wonder if there were as many people this poor even long time ago...more This book is about the experience of a journalist who tries surviving for a few months by working several minimum wage jobs, like waitressing, housekeeping, and working at Wal-Mart, and her thoughts on some of the things that are messed up about the way businesses work. Her story confirms what I already suspected. That it sucks to be poor. It is pretty alarming, though, to read about the life conditions of some of her co-workers. I wonder if there were as many people this poor even long time ago, like before there were big corporations, and everyone was farmers. Yeah, I guess there were... because I remember in school learning about how there were landowners and then there were sharecroppers, and how the sharecroppers got screwed. It got me thinking about what my life would be like if I had to work those kind of jobs. Where you have to work really hard jobs, where you work up a real sweat because you're working so hard, like a horse, and you're paid so little you can barely afford to house and feed yourself. Like what would it be like to be a farmer. I do think though that there has to be a sort of gratifying feeling about doing physical labor for one's livelihood. Like, if you were successful, you'd really feel like you built something up. But then I'm sure that people who do manual labor because they have to probably think they'd feel more satisfied making more money while sitting on butt in an air-conditioned office. Maybe at some point in my life, I should do some really hard manual labor for a period of time. Just to know what it's like. You know, it can be like, character building or something. Form some tough callouses on my soft woman hands. I read an article today about farmers, and some of the innovative ways they find to keep their farm running. In the article, there is a young couple, pretty close to my age, starting out their lives as farmers. Both went to college. They made about $40,000 combined over a year for all their work. It's pretty mind-blowing why they would choose to do this... become farmers, I mean, but also admirable in a way. Anyway. Read the book... it's pretty interesting....less

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

add a comment

Alyse rated it:

02/28/08

Read in February, 2008

This was another really quick read and one of those books that can really open your eyes to the plight of those struggling everyday in our very own neighborhoods.

The basis is that the phD-holding, journalist author decides to take on some real life experimental journalism and become one with those working minimum wage jobs trying to get by in America. Her 'adventure' took her from Key West, FL, where she worked as a waitress to Portland, Maine, where she worked as a maid and at a retirement...more This was another really quick read and one of those books that can really open your eyes to the plight of those struggling everyday in our very own neighborhoods.

The basis is that the phD-holding, journalist author decides to take on some real life experimental journalism and become one with those working minimum wage jobs trying to get by in America. Her 'adventure' took her from Key West, FL, where she worked as a waitress to Portland, Maine, where she worked as a maid and at a retirement home, and finally to Minneapolis, where she put on the blue vest at Wal-Mart. She had to live entirely off of what she made and could not rely on perks from her 'previous' life.

I'm sure we've all at one time or another blamed those living in poverty for their lack of motivation to work or sustain work or blaming their condition on anything from drug abuse to the number of children they have.

What the author discovered was the disturbing truth that even a single hard-working woman struggled rightly in trying to maintain shelter and basic needs working amongst these 'average' jobs and wages that are supposed to sustain life. She was motivated, enthusiastic in her work, and dedicated, and there were times she couldn't find affordable housing or feared not being able to pay her rent, let alone eat.

The average working Americans that she comes across in her journey make you stand back and realize that most of those in poverty have not chosen to be there, in the sense that they are working their asses off everyday and can barely break even, let alone get ahead. And then you add in single mothers having to pay daycare and healthcare, or even cohabitators that barely get by on each others help.

And to boot, this 'experiment' took place in the late 90s when the United States was experiencing an economic boom. It would be a monstrosity to witness this feat taking place in today's America. That is a sad reality.

Read this book. Be alarmed at what millions of your neighbors experience day in and day out. Get upset. And for the love of god, put people in office that realize we have a serious poverty problem in this country!...less

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Kate rated it:

02/12/08

Read in June, 2005

At the time I read this book, I was about two years into a three-year stint as a waitress. I remember disagreeing with Ehrenreich on some of her conclusions, but time--and another brief waitressing stint--have tempered that disagreement.

For me, waitressing was freedom--freedom from expectations, from responsibility, from job stress. I was coming off of a series of "professional" jobs that I absolutely hated, and all I knew of work was absolute misery and boredom. Waitressing is ...more At the time I read this book, I was about two years into a three-year stint as a waitress. I remember disagreeing with Ehrenreich on some of her conclusions, but time--and another brief waitressing stint--have tempered that disagreement.

For me, waitressing was freedom--freedom from expectations, from responsibility, from job stress. I was coming off of a series of "professional" jobs that I absolutely hated, and all I knew of work was absolute misery and boredom. Waitressing is a lot of things, but it's not stressful and it's usually not boring. While it doesn't take huge amounts of brainpower, you're constantly on the move, and there is a multitasking element that most people who have never waited tables before don't really appreciate. My family thought I had lost my mind, even if they were too polite to say so.

The other thing it is, which I didn't fully appreciate at the time, is hard on your body. The first time around, I was 23-26 years old. I could work a double shift and be tired, but not totally destroyed. The second time, I was 28 and a five-hour shift had me ready for traction. Partially this was due to the fact that I wasn't used to it anymore, but those two years in the middle were enough to make me feel old and decrepit.

And of course, there is the money. You can make damn good money waiting tables, but you're not going to do it in the type of place Ehrenreich was working, or the type of place I was working, for that matter. And while I made enough to basically support myself, I couldn't handle anything unexpected--car repairs, doctor bills, vet bills, etc. I had a safety net--my parents--but most people I worked with did not. And, like Ehrenreich, I had an exit strategy. I had a degree, work experience, and awesome contacts that helped me get a professional job when waitressing got old.

But in a way, it's still liberating to know that I can always support myself by waiting tables, if I had to. I still think, though, that WalMart = Satan....less

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

Madeline rated it:

03/19/08

For the most part, this is a really eye-opening read. It describes an experiement by journalist Barbara Ehrenreich where she takes a series of minimum wage jobs (waitress, hotel maid, housekeeper, nursing home aide, and Wal-Mart employee) and tries to survive on the earnings from those jobs. "Surviving," it turns out, means living in crappy hotels and eating fast food while trying to keep two jobs. Her descriptions of the dirty secrets of the jobs she takes are really interesting - whe...more For the most part, this is a really eye-opening read. It describes an experiement by journalist Barbara Ehrenreich where she takes a series of minimum wage jobs (waitress, hotel maid, housekeeper, nursing home aide, and Wal-Mart employee) and tries to survive on the earnings from those jobs. "Surviving," it turns out, means living in crappy hotels and eating fast food while trying to keep two jobs. Her descriptions of the dirty secrets of the jobs she takes are really interesting - when she cleans houses, she describes how the maids essentially just wipe away dirt without actually bothering to disinfect surfaces - but I'll be honest, I was a little disappointed by how few explosive behind-the-scenes revelations she gives her readers. Also, she's really reluctant to tell exactly which restaurant, maid service, hotel chain, and nursing home she was employed by, although she had no trouble name-dropping when it came time to work for Wal-Mart. I wanted to know exactly which restaurant that was "part of a well-known national chain" (called "Jerry's" in Ehrenreich's book) makes servers prepare salad with their bare hands and usually doesn't have soap in the employee bathrooms. As muckrakers go, Ehrenreich is a bit of a wimp.
She also can't seem to shake the whole "I Am A Fearless And Noble Journalist Who Sacrifices Everything FOR THE PEOPLE" mindset she starts out with. When she quits each minimum-wage job to move on to the next one, she makes sure to tell her fellow employees that she's (gasp!) NOT actually a divorced woman with no college education, she's actually a JOURNALIST with a PHD who's INVESTIGATING THIS ESTABLISHMENT FOR A BOOK!!!
Ehrenreich is clearly expecting her fellow employees to be shocked and awed by her espionage skills and applaud her for pretending to be One Of Them so she can write a best-selling tell-all, but that doesn't happen. Every single time Ehrenreich reveals her true identity, the response is an overwhelming, "Um...good for you?"
And it is hilarious. ...less

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Danielle rated it:

01/18/08

bookshelves: non-fiction

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: Middle and upper class conservatives

I chose to read this book because I'd heard about it recently in several places. So, I was surprised to find it was published about 7 years ago, and Ehrenreich's research was done almost 10 years ago. I guess it made enough of an impact that even several years later, people can't stop talking about.
I liked this book a lot because this inside peek at low-wage working America was very interesting, especially because I've only been a temporary resident of that world and don't really know what lif...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

Paul rated it:

12/15/07

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: crybabies, entitlement wonks, NE1 who is never worked

WAA, WAAAA, WAAAAAAA...boo hooooo

What was the publisher thinking? Letting a biology Ph.d write an economics book. There are so many economic inaccuracies in this book they are too numerous to mention. The most important theory she mangles is that she thinks wages she should be raised even if there are enough employees to hire at piss-poor wages. She believes that (she eludes to it, but never makes the point clearly) it is the employers responsibility to provide enough wage to make sure ev...more

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

8 comments

Annie rated it:

12/12/07

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: everyone

I picked this up and read it in one day. I also checked the stats for 2007 since the copyright for this was 2001. It really made my blood boil at times and I have "been there and done that" as an employee. I am currently looking for work and even with a B.A., good paying jobs with benefits are impossible to find. Everyone who reads this will hopefully understand the "working poor" and treat them better.

Ehrenreich turns her gimlet eye on the view from the workforce's b...more

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

add a comment

Zoë rated it:

06/20/07

bookshelves: gets-you-thinking, history-class

Read in April, 2006

In her book Barbara Ehrenreich investigates just how working class people in the United States make ends meet. Ehrenreich goes displaces her self three times, in Key West, Maine and Minnesota, allows herself just over $1000, gets housing and a wage paying job, and tries to live as a wage worker for a month. The result is a sad illustration of what its like for millions of Americans who live at the poverty level, depending on wages.
...more

Like this review? yes (4 people liked it)

add a comment

Candi rated it:

10/14/07

I wanted to like this book. I thought the premise was fantastic. But overall, as someone who actually has lived on minimum wage (even supporting a child on minimum wage back when minimum wage was scary low), this book comes up short in several ways.

First of all, Barbara Ehrenreich has a horribly privileged, ivory tower view of how poor people must live. While she does talk to some people who are scraping by, she assumes the majority of poor people make the same crummy decisions as the few to...more

Like this review? yes (4 people liked it)

1 comments

Lemonscarlet rated it:

04/03/08

THis is a book to give to someone who says things about how poor people should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps. I actually think that this is possible on a certain level and I believe that every person has to take responsibility for their situation. However, this book does a great job of showing you how it is nearly impossible to live on minimum wage, and how demoralizing it is to try to do so. Try to get an apartment when you just got a job and don't have any savings. Try making...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Carrie rated it:

11/06/07

Read in January, 2004

For all the author says about the greatness of the American blue-collar worker (she even brags about her husband being one), she seems to think the work is beneath her. It seems like she is trying to shock her readers by exposing the harshness of poverty. But is it really that shocking for her employer to tell her she missed a spot when she's working as a cleaning woman? Sure, there are bad bosses out there, but you can't expect your boss to overlook your bad job cleaning a house just because yo...more

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

add a comment

Missy rated it:

07/18/07

bookshelves: pastreads

Read in June, 2004

recommends it for: no one

(warning, a nerve has been touched!)
I have experience working with and researching programs that aid the poor and working poor. I hated this book. The only role it could play is as a weak talking piece for starting up serious discussion about the struggles and needs of the poor.

Barbara Ehrenreich may have stepped outside her comfort zone and into the world of the working poor, but she did it with an educated background, with money "just in case", with a pompous attitude, and with...more

Like this review? yes (15 people liked it)

15 comments

Michele rated it:

01/20/08

Read in January, 2008

This was an interesting book on the "working poor". Folks who work full time (usually more than full time) and the difficulty "getting by" on low or minimum wages.

The author moved around the country, Florida, Maine, and Minnesota and worked a variety of low paying jobs (waitress, maid, rest-home worker, Wal-mart employee). If not for her "real life" funds, she would not have been able to make survive on her wages, in most cases.

This book was interesting to m...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

Shauna rated it:

05/27/07

Read in April, 2007

recommends it for: people interested in social (in)justice and people who aren't

This is the account of an undercover journalist, Barbara Ehrenreich, who decides to join the ranks of the low-wage workers in America. She moves from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, working as a waitress, a hotel maid, a house cleaner, a nursing home aide, and a Wal-Mart salesperson.

Her experiences ultimately reveal that her strong work ethic and her frequent two-job balancing act are barely enough (and sometimes not enough)to make ends meet. Ehrenreich's account of the physically demandin

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

discuss this book

groups with this book

friend reviews (0)

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 10215)