"Nickel and Dimed" and Minimum Wage

Paper Summary:

This paper examines Barbara Ehrenreich's book "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America" about her experiences in trying to live on the minimum wage. She spent a year on the road working from everything as a Wal-Mart clerk to a maid to a waitress and discovers it is nearly impossible to survive, let alone live, on $6 to $7 per hour, which is well over the $5.15 Federal minimum hourly wage. It analyzes her experiences trying to hide her education, finding cheap accommodation and living with out health insurance. The paper updates us on basic information about minimum wage regulations, welfare reform and other relevant details and makes us realize that there are a whole class of people that we see every day such as waitresses and clerks whom we take for granted.

From the Paper:

"In 1996, Barbara Ehrenreich was enjoying lunch with an editor from "Harper's" magazine, and together they fleshed out an idea. Ehrenreich would write a magazine article on what it was like to be one of America's working poor. She would take a low-paying $6 or $7 per hour job, and see what it took to survive. Her basic premise for her research was "is it really possible to make a living on the kinds of jobs currently available to unskilled people?" (Ehrenreich). The result of her research is "Nickel and Dimed." She spent a year on the road working from everything as a Wal-Mart clerk to a maid to a waitress. What she found about the working poor in America is the basis of this book."

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