jenb123's Full Review: Barbara Ehrenreich - Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Ge...
Ever wonder why waitresses in diners don't always smile? Or why the associate folding t-shirts at Wal-Mart looks as though she'd rather be anywhere but there? It may be because they are working way too hard for way too little. She may be wondering how she'll pay her rent, how she'll get home or how much she can spend on groceries.
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America(which is the correct title, the listing in the Epinions database is out of date) offers a look inside the world of lower paying jobs, jobs that many people would rather not do. Maids, waitresses and retail clerks are among the lines of work author Barbara Ehrenreich investigates.
An interesting concept, though it did not live up to my expectations.
Undercover and underpaid...
Barbara Ehrenreich is a writer, who, upon discussing welfare reform with an editor, decides to try and get a better perspective on the women forced to get by on $6.00 per hour jobs. She decides to do her research "undercover" to offer an "insider's view" of the lives of the overworked and underpaid. Her findings are interesting, though certainly not typical.
You see, Ehrenreich is overqualified and is from a higher social class than the millions of "unskilled" laborers serving meals and cleaning motel rooms. She reminds the reader repeatedly how she is educated, how her social status is higher than a waitress or cleaning lady. I grew tired of reading how much "better" she was than those she planned to "join."
Essentially, Ehrenreich, who has a Ph.D. in biology (and reminds us throughout the book), chooses a few cities to join the ranks of the "wage slaves" with their low paying jobs. I must say that her study is far from scientific. So much for that Ph.D.
Three cities...
The first leg of this journey into poverty begins in Key West, Florida. Her primary concern is being recognized since she lives in a neighboring city. Oh, the horror!
Applying at restaurants and supermarkets, she is afraid to seem overqualified. Too well educated. Too "white" and out of place. She also finds that even in applying for "unskilled" work there are more indignities, like peeing in a cup. Apparently higher class people do not take drug tests. We find out later that she's afraid she won't pass one the test having recently smoked pot.
She holds a Ph.D. in biology, but is not educated enough to realize that pot smoking isn't terribly bright when looking for work? I don't have a Ph.D. and even I know that many companies drug test applicants. I also know that marijuana, a commonly used drug, stays in the system. And I don't even smoke.
In Key West, Ehrenreich finds some waitressing jobs. Though she changes the names of the restaurants, calling one "Jerry's" the description still sounds a lot like Denny's. As far as housing, she is limited to "flophouses" and trailers. She remarks "... it is a shock to realize that "trailer trash" has become, for me, a demographic to aspire to."
She goes to Maine next. She chose it for its whiteness. Race is a big thing, apparently, as she refers to people she encounters as "the Haitian cook" or "the Asian-American or possible Hispanic" co-worker. In Maine, she works as a maid and gives some especially colorful accounts of the nasty things she's required to clean. She mentions toilet juice, crust and pubic hair frequently. Shall we discuss skid marks?
Her description of the type of cleaning that The Maids are trained to do makes me wonder why anyone would pay someone to do a half-arsed spit-n-shine using little cleaner and less water. I was seriously disgusted.
Her last locale is somewhere near Minnesota's Twin Cities. She ends up working at a Wal-Mart where she does give quite an accurate description of retail work. From what I've heard about Wal-Mart, she certainly kept track of her experiences there and described them in detail.
She also observes her co-worker's lifestyles, commenting on their ages, races and living arrangements. To be honest, I can't say that I would guess that so many Wal-Mart employees (or maids or waitresses) lived in sleazy motels or even in their cars. I've worked with people who lived in motels, but only twice, maybe three times in my life.
She also learns that one full-time low-wage job is not enough. In most cases, she and her co-workers had two.
Is this reality?
I believe that Barbara Ehrenreich did some true undercover work for her research. I don't doubt that she crossed paths with many people who were down on their luck. I think that doing some of these less desirable jobs gave her some perspective, but not necessarily a real look at the typical experience.
There are several reasons that the research done by the author was flawed. I had been "working at poverty level" in the past. I waited tables making only $40.00 many nights. I had many $7.00 per hour jobs. I did not have a "Rent-A-Wreck" to drive nor a credit card. Certainly not the promise of returning to "my real social status" after a few weeks.
Ehrenreich applied for the typical jobs that those without a college degree often have to take. College is not an option for all people anyway, but there are people with Ph.D.'s who couldn't possibly handle waiting tables or working as a retail clerk.
Ehrenreich did not have children to support nor did she really have to worry about starving or becoming homeless. She didn't stay with any particular job long enough to either get some kind of pay increase or gain much experience. She didn't have time to burn out either.
Her salary expectations and allowance for lodging were not necessarily the norm. Not all waitresses and maids live in sleazy rooms, small rented homes in trailer parks or cheap motels. Real people get laid off, get sick, have transportation issues and are not merely doing a brief investigation.
More complaints...
Yes, Barbara Ehrenreich did effectively demonstrate that welfare reform sucks. It is difficult to get by on a mere $7.00 per hour. Many years ago, I earned $7.00 an hour and had no car. I did not have my utilities covered by my motel rental fee. There were groceries to buy, doctor's bills, electric bills, bus fare...There was no warm, clean house waiting for me. No guarantee that the situation was temporary.
The experiment in Nickel and Dimed didn't take into account all these variables. They were controlled experiments, nothing more than a book at stake. No problems with shoes wearing out or needing medicine. No child care worries. No hopelessness or lack of control.
When Ehrenreich's funds diminished st one point, she actually utilized the food pantry. I was disgusted that there were real people who truly could not afford food that needed the pantry, but Ehrenreich forgot about her "ATM card" that she promised to use if need be. She had no problem shelling out a lot of money on products to clear marijuana out of her system in order to get work.
She didn't have to work holidays, stand in a blizzard waiting for a bus or have her power shut off. She merely got a peek at what many American women endure. A brief and protected glimpse at "life at the bottom."
What can be learned...
Ehrenreich did show that "no job is unskilled" and learned that these jobs that people below her social class do are extremely difficult, physically and mentally exhausting.
She shared a few stories of people she encountered along the way. She described the way people who truly are barely getting by look and behave. Most of these people are good, hard-working people who simply didn't have the same opportunities as our author.
Many employers who employ the people Ehrenreich is trying to research are typically demanding. Many are stingy, many truly could care less about the restaurant they run or the clients who hire their cleaning services. The low-paid workers actually try to do right by the customers while management can be stingy to cut costs.
The jobs that a newly-divorced homemaker can get truly do not pay adequate wages to support an adult, much less a family. People work two and three jobs, their lives become perpetual work with no recreation, no time or money to spare.
If you were not fortunate enough to receive training and/or a college education, you really can end up in a never ending cycle of barely paying the rent, paying some bills late, or not at all. There is no "saving up" for anything.
Scrubbing floors of the wealthy or cleaning up in a retirement home are not the types of jobs that most want. Arranging clothes at a discount store is a needed service, yet the clerk may not even get paid enough to purchase clearanced clothes with an additional employee discount.
Barbara Ehrenreich does demonstrate the many jobs that are available for many people are not adequate to make a living nor do many enhance one's life.
This book barely gets by...
This was an interesting read which can show those unaware of the lives of the "working poor." Politicians and CEOS are often ignorant, some intentionally, of the struggles their faithful employees face. How many people use terms like "trailer trash" or look down their noses at others who can only find work cleaning motel rooms or serving burgers? Other than the author, that is.
People who live in big homes with even bigger wallets say that anyone can "get a job." Most people can "get a job" but many can't support their children, much less themselves on the typical $6.00-$8.00 hourly wage alone. It can even be difficult to work 2 jobs and get by without dropping dead.
Perhaps Barbara Ehrenreich will appreciate her "real life" and have more respect for those who do not belong to "her class" of people. She probably did feel as though she had a real taste of "poverty" but based on her comments and plans for these undercover experiments, I'm not sure that her experiences are as genuine as the book would suggest.
She does admit "I am, of course, very different from the people who normally fill America's least attractive jobs..." and that her aim was "-just to see whether I could match income to expenses, as the truly poor do every day."
Ehrenreich's intentions and attitude certainly don't appear as though her research will represent real life in the manner the critics (other than this one) would suggest. I have to wonder if she could have modified her research to more honestly represent the women who are entering the work force and landing these types of jobs.
My personal thoughts on Nickel and Dimed...
Having been among these women myself, I know how tough it can be. My advantage was being single and childless. I found the constant references to Ehrenreich's "real life" or "social status" condescending. Some of her assumptions left me cold.
She speaks of working class people in major cities as being "people of color" and that "a white woman with unaccented English seeking entry-level jobs might only look desperate or weird."
Hmmm...I was a white woman with unaccented English who had trouble landing entry-level work in Chicago. Not exactly Mayberry here. Additionally, entry-level and low-wage jobs are not always the same. I have waited tables alongside people who were college graduates. Her preconceived ideas are biased, in my opinion.
Says Ehrenreich, "Besides, I've had enough unchosen encounters with poverty in my lifetime to know it's not a place you would want to visit for touristic purposes; it just smells too much like fear."
I will concede that most of her descriptions of jobs, particularly waitressing, were right on the money. If not for the frequent reminders of her "real life," I'd have almost thought her "investigative journalism" was better than I was giving her credit for.
It is just that I was expecting something much different based on the "praise" which covers the dust jacket. Says Lynn Woolsley, a Member of Congress, "Millions of Americans suffer daily trying to make ends meet. Barbara Ehrenreich's book forces people to acknowledge the average worker's struggle, and promises to be extremely influential."
Did we read the same book? Would "trailer trash" receive such praise worrying about passing a drug test?
"...She has accomplished what no contemporary writer has even attempted-to be that 'nobody' who barely subsists on her essential labors. Nickel and Dimed is a stiff punch in the nose to those righteous apostles of 'welfare reform." -Studs Terkel
Attempted, yes. Accomplished? That is a matter of opinion.
Other critics praise her "investigative journalism" as exhibiting "courage and empathy" to "bring us face-to-face with the fate of millions of American workers today."
Perhaps the most troubling claim is that this is a book that shows what prosperity looks like from "the bottom." Well, alrighty then...
Nickel and Dimed is not an accurate portrayal of real life. The author even admits this somewhat, so did these people praising the book or writing the blurb for the dust jacket actually read this book?
I only half-heartedly recommend Nickel and Dimed because it does portray the types of jobs many try to live off of. It doesn't portray the real stories of these people or their lives outside of work. Perhaps members of Ehrenreich's "social class" will at least see that the people who clean their houses are people too.
That is, so long as they don't smoke their "social stash." Who can afford marijuana on $6.00 per hour?*
An interesting read, an intriguing idea, but not quite what I expected. Not quite what could have been with less bias and more research.
For a look at waitressing from a real insider, read Waiting by Debra Ginsberg which is a far better look at life from the inside, though minus the housing and extreme financial difficulties.
* Actually, I have no idea what the stuff costs. I'm surprised the author didn't officially add this expense to her budget....
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