Barbara Ehrenreich is a woman with a mission. Although she is well-educated (having a phD in Biology), she decided to experiment and find out how the "working poor" made it in this country. Her book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America is a great read for anyone wanting to understand why it is so hard for people to get out of poverty. Using the alibi of a divorced homemaker, she went in search of low-paying jobs that required little education. Going from state to state, she worked as a waitress, hotel maid, cleaning woman, nursing home aide, and a Wal-mart sales clerk. She had to take the cheapest living accomodations available. Nickel and Dimed is the result of her two year social experiment as the working poor in America.
At the time that this book was written in 2000, the working poor made up just under 60% of the workforce in this country. Now, the numbers are significantly more. They are the unseen workers in our economy. They are the wait-persons at restaurants, concierges and maids at hotels, day-care center workers, home health aides, and retail workers. They sometimes do the dirty, labor-intensive jobs that are called "unskilled". Barbara's mission was to "do the old-fashioned kind" of reporting where the journalist goes out and tries it out. Her book is a fascinating account of her experiences. Anyone who wants to understand what America is going to be like in the future will need to read this book.
Barbara's results were as follows..Many times, low paid workers must take two jobs if they want to live indoors. The biggest expense for workers is housing, factoring close to 40% of the family budget. And the federal poverty level is out-dated, figuring only the prices of food for a certain number of people as part of their method of calculating what is the poverty level. In the 1960's, when this method was first used, food accounted for 24% of the family budget. Housing only took up 29% of that. Today, housing prices are astronomical. Rent in apartments are also high. So, housing expenses takes a bigger chunk of pay. Places that are more inexpensive are also out of the way places. The working poor are often caught between a rock and a hard place, having to pay rent, put food on the table, and drive farther to get to work if they have a car.
The working poor usually work at jobs that don't provide health insurance. A simple tooth-ache could wipe out the small savings that a person accumulates. At many of the jobs, workers are discouraged from banding together to make changes in their pay. Workers can be fired, have their schedules reduced or face other punishments for speaking out against low wages. In 2000, The Economic Policy Institute came up with the "living wage" or what a family of four can comfortably live on (included was health insurance, telephone expenses, and child care). The amount came to $30,000 for one year or $14 per hour.
Barbara cited that the media is known for not showing the stories of the working poor. They constantly play up on the occasional positive stories, and rarely report on what close to 60% of Americans do - get by usually by the skin of their teeth. It has only been recently reported what has been going on for a very long time. The amount of donations at food banks has dropped off considerably year after year. Barbara has stated that this has been happening since the 1990's. The media only picked up on this fact since the recession started in 2008. With little attention focused on the working poor, little is done to advocate for them.
Nickel and Dimed gives details of what it is like to be the working poor in America. Barbara's journey also focused on the mind-set of someone after working these jobs and why it is so hard for them to sometimes leave. This book was written in 2000 when the job market was a lot stronger. Now, because of the current economic environment, many more people have been put in this category. Her book is an excellent, intensive look on a large part of America that is rarely talked about, but common to many people who now face it.
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