About this title: In this study of America's minimum wage workers, the author explains how she went under cover several times, taking on different low-wage positions, to determine how adults who lack higher education survive. After working at Wal-Mart and as a waitress, she concluded that the working poor should be afforded more health care, housing assistance, and respect. A New York Times Notable Book for 2001.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Granta Books
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9781862075214ISBN:1862075212
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Saint Martin's Press
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780805063899ISBN:0805063897
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Granta Books, London
Date Published: 2002
Description: Very Good. Author takes a series of low-wage jobs to experience life as a low-wage worker. Extensive section on her time at Wal-Mart and less-than-glowing account of that employer. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: GRANTA BOOKS
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9781862075214ISBN:1862075212
Description: Published by GRANTA BOOKS in 2002, 221 pages, paperback, medium size, no D/W, covers good, internally good, decorative front cover, without inscription. Shipped from UK. Delivery is usually 2-3 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780805063899ISBN:0805063897
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Minor waving at top of back cover. One minor corner curl. No creases. Text is clean and bright. Binding is tight. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 240 p. Spare Change? . Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780965187701ISBN:0965187705
Description: Good. Cover shows slight edge wear. Light soiling on sides of book. Slight corner creasing or wear. A few pages have notes or underlining. read more
"This book was required for school; it is really a good book to help those working for minimum wage. It gives an understanding to what society thinks of the lower class."
"A recent conversation about homelessness has prompted me to consider the role that chance plays in our financial well-being. While it is certainly true that there are many factors within our control, from consumption habits to work ethic, I also believe that there are many factors outside of our control. We none of us can choose the family, community, or racial/ethnic/economic group into which we are born - all factors that strongly influence our chances of success. Likewise, we can neither predict, nor adequately prepare it would seem, for those unexpected disasters, whether medical or natural, which can destroy a lifetime of hard work in the blink of an eye.
These reflections reminded me in turn, of Barbara Ehrenreich's excellent book, Nickel and Dimed, in which the author attempts to discover how well she herself could live working unskilled, minimum-wage jobs. Divided into three main sections, the book follows Ehrenreich as she works as a waitress in Florida, a nursing-home aide and cleaning woman in Maine, and a Wal-mart associate in Minnesota. She quickly discovers that she is barely able to live adequately on what she earns, even when working two jobs, and concludes that the conservative mantra of advancement and betterment through hard work is largely an illusion for the working poor.
I have seen Ehrenreich criticized from both right and left, with reviewers accusing her of everything from advancing a socialist agenda to patronizing the working class with her "poverty tourism." As someone who thinks that socialized medicine and education would be of great benefit to our society, I am not unduly disturbed by the former. As for the latter, I am not sure just what it is people would have Ehrenreich do... If she were to live on the street, or temporarily "adopt" a few children, would her experience then seem more authentic? She acknowledges who she is, the privileges that she enjoys, and attempts to learn something about those less fortunate than herself. For that, I think she should be commended..."
"In this book, the author moves to three different cities, pretends to be a homemaker re-entering the work force, and tries to survive on minimum wage jobs. It's not easy. She works as a waitress, at a nursing home, as a cleaning lady, and at Walmart. She lives in motel rooms and eats fast food when she has no where to cook.
I really enjoyed this book, partially because it was like a serious flashback to my own life. I went with Dale to South Carolina for 4 months in the fall of, I don't know, probably 2005, when he had a military school to attend. We lived in a hotel room the entire time. I had my college degree, but due to the brevity of our residency, I applied for low end jobs (including Walmart, a process she describes) and worked a couple - one as a cleaning lady, just like in this book - and got to know a cleaning woman at our hotel very well. (She helped me hide my cat in my room from management. :-))
That fall, I was working for pennies, cleaning people's pee off of the walls, and sweeping up dead cockroaches from behind their toilets. The managers at the apartment complexes where I cleaned treated me a certain way. They seemed to look down on me, the lowly cleaning lady. It didn't really bother me. I was pretty sure I was way better than them in my head.
A mere six months later I was back in Utah, working a high end sales job that I kind of accidentally plopped into. It turned out to be a perfect fit for me, and I began making obscene amounts of money. (Seriously, obscene, like more than brain surgeons get paid.)
Side note: I still can't believe they paid me as much as they did because, 1. I just sat and played games on my cell phone all day while talking on the phone to clients, and 2. I so would have stayed and done the same job for $75,000 a year. Or $50,000. Or less. Anything was a big step up for a girl who was a cleaning lady 2 months earlier!
Anyways, after two years at that job, being rewarded, respected, and getting plaques on the wall in honor of moi, I turned in my high six figure income to be a stay at home mom. Now I have no income, no awards, no high bonuses, and nothing to show for my work other than the silliest monkey of a child on earth. (Which is way better compensation, anyways.)
I have never thought so much about my experience of going from low wage, to high wage, to no wage in such a short period of time before. I think I should write a book about it. I have so much to say!
Anyways, I enjoyed almost the whole book here, until the end where the author did her evaluation about how we should become a socialist country. Okay, so she didn't exactly say that, but I bet she is voting for Barak Obama, if you know what I mean.
Here is why I think she was a little overdramatic:
1. Your first few weeks at a job are always the toughest. I remember that from the cleaning job, the day I was given a hideously dirty 3 bedroom to clean. I almost sat on the floor and cried, realizing that just scrubbing the floor in the utility closet could take hours alone, and I was paid per apartment, not hourly. But I also remember the first couple months of my sales job being super stressful, in a different way. I came home one evening and crumpled to the floor of my pantry, sobbing. I just could only handle the pressure of the job so long before I lost it. You get used to your jobs after awhile though, and it doesn't phase you anymore. It happens no matter what, I think, you just can't expect it to happen in the first few weeks, or even months.
2. You always start at the very lowest rung on the ladder of success. It sucks, because everyone steps on your head and drops stuff on you. But typically, if you work hard, you will move UP that ladder and get to step on other people instead. Stepping on people is better than being stepped on. You just have to stick around more than a few weeks to get that opportunity.
3. You can be happy in any job. It's all attitude! For reals. I have worked sucky jobs. SUCKY SUCKY SUCKY jobs. And I was happy, generally.
One other comment section: I think I forgot to put this somewhere in my review, but I don't remember where I was going to say it. So it's just an end note now:
I got to know the cleaning ladies at the hotel I lived in. Particularly, I became friends with a black lady named Delilah Green. She helped me keep my adopted kitten Romeo (now a grown up cat) under wraps from the evil management who banned pets in the room. She had one grown daughter and a granddaughter who lived in Florida. She and her boyfriend and some of his family shared an apartment across town, and she'd ride the bus in. Occasionally I would give her a ride home when she missed the bus, and I got to see where she lived. She'd been a drug addict for years, until she sobered up and found Jesus about two years prior. She was working hard, and working her way back into a real life. Other soldiers from Dale's class didn't like her, and swore she was stealing their beer from their fridges. It ticked me off. They were drunk at 3 AM enough for me to be pretty well aware of who was drinking their alcohol.
Anyways, whenever I read about these poor working class blue collar women, I picture my friend Delilah. Granted, she had a lot to learn. I gave her a $50 tip and she told me that she used it to buy food and beer for her old druggie friend who had just got out of jail. She was thrilled to be able to help someone, but I was hoping not to have my tip go to buy a prison reject alcohol. My point is, the people who are in poverty often have a reason. They are in their own way. Maybe they use drugs, or they sleep with lots of different men, unprotected, and not married to any of them. Surprise, they get four kids with no dads to help support them. I KNOW this is not the case with every welfare recipient or low wage worker, but often there is blame they need to shoulder. I liked that Delilah took responsibility for what had happened to her, and was grateful for a second chance.
I would really like to read a book that tells the other side of this argument, not just her socialist-esque opinion. It has me thinking a lot.
PS. Finally, I would like to say the following: there were approximately 579 other things that I read in this book that made me think, "Oh wow - I totally want to comment on that in my review on goodreads.com". This was a very brief (okay, actually it is super long and only my sister will probably read the whole thing, but brief in comparison to what I was THINKING about), and random (because it's what popped into my head while I was typing tonight) discussion of my feelings on this book. Does anyone want to join a book club and read this book then discuss it with me? Please please please? For reals, I just had to stop typing because my review got too long, but this is a fascinating topic, and very interesting book that you can't put down."
"I'm going to step on some toes here and I apologize if I do. I AM one of the working poor that she talks about here and I DO believe in pulling myself up and making a better life for myself. But what I want to know is this. Unless you have been where I am, how can you comment? How can you also call her a bleeding heart? Is this a country for the haves only? And the have nots just have not? uhh uhh, I just don't understand. We got an election coming up and some folks are fussing about this country even entertaining about health care for EVERY American. So let me ask again, this country is not for the free and brave but for those who just have it? Personally, I found the book factual to a point. On what I make, unless the housing is subsidized, I cannot live there. plain and simple. does that make me proud to say? no, just realistic. You cannot make a living, pay bills and rent and eat on less than $1500 a month much less $1000, unless you really got a little someone to help you here. Her staying in a place didn't seem that realistic to me, although she did make some allowances. but then she had to because after all, you just cannot do it on a minimum wage salary unless you have a roomie or man or both. I have read in Donald Trump and Robert Kiyoski's book that the middle class in this country is shrinking and that we as a people should either stay poor, and that is food for serious thought."
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