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Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

Ehrenreich reflects on the jobs she had and is amazed on how much pain low wage people can handle. She makes a point when when she asks, "If you hump away at menial jobs 360-plus days a year, does some kind of repetitive injury of the spirit set in?"(61). Ehrenreich persistently tells the reader that the low wage workers lose their willpower and spirit from the exhaustion of work and all the pain they have to endure in their workplace. This is revealed through Ehrenreich's occupation as a house cleaner which is not only spiritually, but physically draining as well. It is true that low wage jobs can cause damages physically and spiritually just like what Ehrenreich experienced in her journey. .
             5. Nickel and Dimed was written in a very momentous time for the nation's poor people. During this time the Welfare reform was enacted by the U.S. in the 1990's. This reform was supposed to increase employment and it did but it was not as successful as it was thought to be. As Ehrenreich searches for jobs she encounters many jobs that do not pay enough to sustain her. For example "The wages Winn-Dixie is offering-$6 and a couple of dimes to start with-are not enough" (15). She has the choice to keep looking for a job but other people do not. She finds many jobs that pay a very low price and those jobs do are not enough to sustain one person. As Ehrenreich continues to work she finds out that "Claude, the Haitian cook, is desperate to get out of the two room apartment he shares with his girlfriend and two other, unrelated people" (20). Just like they share an apartment, most of the poverty population live with groups of people. They can not afford the rent of an apartment alone because they are not payed enough so they have to live with other people. The Welfare Reform was supposed to get people out of poverty but so far it has not been successful. Continuing to work at at different paces during the 1990's it was found that "In 1996 the number of persons holding two or more jobs averaged 7.


Essays Related to Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

1. Nickel and Dimed book report

... her apartment while she is out of town. Barbara starts looking for a job the next day and is quickly offered a job at Wal-Mart. After working at Wal-Mart she hates it and nearly creates a union for the workers. Barbara is unable to find affordable housing and returns to her old life with a sense of failure. Mission Barbara Ehrenreich's mission was simple; to give up all the ... things she has earned including money and find out firsthand how a person can live on a $7 an hour salary. She ... do something to help these individuals, either by raising the minimum wage or passing laws to he...

  • Word Count: 2617
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Nickle and Dimed- chapter #1

Nickel and Dimed Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich, is a well written but frightening book that looks into the real lives of invisible, low wage, hard working Americans. Ehrenreich brings up many topics that are rarely spoken about in our society and decides to go back to "old-fashioned" journalism to find out how women, who are pushed in the labor market after leaving welfare and without government ... housekeeping while she still works at Jerry's. She is faced with and overcomes many physical, psychological, and emotional triumphs along the way. I think that Barbara Ehrenreich is a br...

  • Word Count: 531
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Women and poverty as related to

... one that covers the basics, such as food, shelter and transportation. In Nickel and Dimed, Ehrenreich struggles with finding affordable shelter, food, and other basic necessities because of the measly wages she receives. Ehrenreich claims that, ideally, in order to survive on minimum wage, " one job will never be enough." (Ehrenreich 60) According to a study performed by Princeton Economists, David Card and Alan Krueger, " a realistic minimum wage set at a family ... families are forced to find motels to live in as an alternative, to alleviate the burden of security deposits and exorbit...

  • Word Count: 1140
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

4. Nickel and dimed

... now have an opportunity to enter the work industry and better their standard of living. However, these newly employed workers must go through the difficulties of living on a low- wage of six to seven dollars an hour, while being treated harshly and scrutinized for their every move by their employers. Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of Nickel and Dimed, raises awareness of the lives of low-wage ... , poverty stricken people being pushed into the labor Market by welfare reform, by highlighting the struggles they encounter daily. She gives up the comforts that come with being ... a well know...

  • Word Count: 1581
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Nickel & Dimed

Nickel & Dimed By Barbara Ehrenreich Barbara Ehrenreich is a journalist who posed as an unskilled worker in 1998 to highlight the struggles encountered every day by Americans attempting to live on minimum wage. Ms Ehrenreich had always been interested in poverty but was inspired to conduct this experiment by the new welfare reform laws enacted in 1997. As the result of the new law, people would be expected to leave welfare and get ... jobs. Sounds good. Unfortunately, the jobs they were able to get really didn't pay enough to live on. Nickel & Dimed is about her ... ecperiences as the trave...

  • Word Count: 717
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Nickel and Dimed

... to acknowledge was that the book needed to be written to address female inequalities in society. The reaction from the Feminine Mystique closely paralleled some people's reactions to the book Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. Many felt that Ehrenreich was judgmental and should not have written the book. They felt that the author did not have a "true" low-wage working experience. I agree that ... to live a low-wage workers life. I feel that this book needed to be written. Despite her sarcasm and human errors the book she wrote raised the awareness on the misunderstood class and pro...

  • Word Count: 1209
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

... Nickel and Dimed was by Barbara Ehrenreich was a phenomenal read, it opened my eyes to the dark corners of the world that are so close yet so far from me. Throughout reading the book one thought consistently ran through my head. The book showed the idea that workplaces can pose hardships to the employees that are physical and ... be ˜worked through,' with gritted teeth, because there's no sick pay or health insurance and the loss of one day's pay will mean no groceries for the next "(Ehrenreich 117). As Ehrenreich evaluates the situation she is well aware of the fact that health insuran...

  • Word Count: 895
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Has Bibliography

8. Ehrenreich Puts a Face on the Statistics

Nickel and Dimed: On not getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich is a nonfiction novel which I read for pleasure over the summer. Ehrenreich is a journalist who goes undercover as a member of the working class poor. She discovered if one really can get by on minimum wage. So many times people have said, "why don't they just get a job?" when they do not know how hard it is for these people ... jobs themselves. She works in different geographic areas such as Florida, Minnesota, and Maine. She tries various types of jobs from waitressing and nursing home aide to Wal-Mart and Merry Maids. Ea...

  • Word Count: 494
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Nickel and Dimed

... . To just get a glimpse of this is one thing but one girl decided to take it one step further and she joined the life of these people for a short time and then she wrote a book about it. After a thorough reading of her book Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich very clearly conveys the sad state that these minimum wage workers are living in. There are many hardships on ... . They have to over come many hardships just to get a place to stay in and eat. Their opportunities in life are not equal to other peoples, as the dream of the United States was supposed to be. These workers are by no me...

  • Word Count: 681
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

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