After seeing Maid all over social media and noticing there was a screen adaptation on Netflix, I kept wondering if I'd read it.

I haven't, but it reminds me of this book I had forgotten about. I read it in undergrad for a sociology class and I remember it made quite the impression on me.

I'm grateful my teacher assigned this book as it is very eye opening although of course, rather staged/sensationalized.

*Edited to Add* This book would be excellent reading for Republicans or those who are against government aid for those in need. The hypocrisy of the religious right knows no bounds, especially when it comes to helping people or having any compassion.

I had to read this for a class, and since I will have to discuss it there more than I ever wish to, this will not be a full, true review. I must say the following however:

This book offended me more than I ever imagined it could. It offended me as a worker. It offended me as a woman. It offended me as a minority. It offended me as a Christian. It offended me as someone who has worked for minimum wage. It offended me as someone who does not have a PhD. It offended my intelligence.

Nickel and Dimed is not without its interesting observation or two, however it is presented in an insulting, faux-scientific way. Ehrenrich set out to show some truths about the low wage work world and only succeeded in showing us her own bigoted, patronizing thoughts on the low wage work world. It's a story, a poor sampling, offers very few facts and relies on very little evidence.

That her grand conclusion was "not having money is hard?" Congratulations, Ehrenreich. We are all astounded by this conclusion.

This book had actually been on my TBR for ages, but it wasn't until the NYT 100 Best Books of the 21st Century list came out that I actually decided to download it from the library for my #walkntalkwednesdays.

If you are like me and prefer your sociological studies books to be heaped in immersion techniques rather than a bunch of statistics and mumbo jumbo, I wouldn’t hesitate to add Nickel and Dimed to your TBR. While there are certainly gripes to gripe about (mainly in the form of the author conducting an experiment that she can easily remove herself from (and does) when the going gets rough), it is astounding that over 20 years after its original publication date how little salaries have changed while the cost of EVERYTHING has increased so dramatically.

I listened to this one and was fully invested throughout the duration of my daily walks. Highly recommend both Evicted as well as Nomadland if this topic interests you, as well as the film Motel Kids of Orange County for a heartbreaking look at families just trying to get by with little to no chance of ever really getting ahead.

I'm all for anyone who takes the time to shine a spotlight on the hellish existence of many folks with low-paying jobs. Therefore, I do appreciate Barbara's book. I spent many years in that life, and it's hard, very hard. At times she came across as being 'better' than the folks she was working with, which kind of rubbed me the wrong way. But, all in all, at least her book draws attention to the plight of the low-wage earner.

Minimum wage jobs in the U.S. suck ... big time ... especially waitressing at any family style restaurant. Enough said.

3 Stars = I'm glad I read it.

(warning, a nerve has been touched!)
I have experience working with and researching programs that aid the poor and working poor. I hated this book. The only role it could play is as a weak talking piece for starting up serious discussion about the struggles and needs of the poor.

Barbara Ehrenreich may have stepped outside her comfort zone and into the world of the working poor, but she did it with an educated background, with money "just in case", with a pompous attitude, and with the requirement of a car at all times.

She also did it without many barriers that are very real to the working poor:
-a child or children
-childcare costs
-low IQ or other learning disabilities
-an alcohol or drug addiction
-an abusive partner
-lack of transportation
-English as a second language
-bad credit
-felony convictions
-health disparities
-no high school diploma or GED
-experience as an orphan or in the foster care system
-homelessness
-no positive support system (like her husband and editor)
-depression, PTSD, schizophremia or other mental illness
-lack of drive or self-worth, hopelessness
-angst for "the system"
-lack of basic computer skills
-lack of interpersonal skills
-lack of personal hygiene or simple lack of clean clothing

I live in Minneapolis, where she lived when the experiment ended. In the book she says she was struggling to find housing, but she was postive that she would find it. Fantastic! I hope the housing she would of found had heat paid, because heating costs will break even a middle-class budget when the weather drops well below zero.

First reviewed Oct.1, 2009. I found and corrected a typo...so the dtae changed.


I find sometimes that people are surprised that I would recommend this book (albeit with a couple of reservations). Somehow the fact that I'm a political conservative is supposed to make me unable to identify with low income workers or those called the working poor.

Why? I struggled with long periods of unemployment...with a family. I've flipped burgers in several restaurants and several times. I've worked in family restaurants, fast food restaurants, factories, I've worked part time, temporary and "whatever I could get". I respect and feel for those who struggle against the odds to support themselves and their loved ones.

This book does lay out a lot of the experience. The life of a waitress (who doesn't have to be paid minimum wage because she gets, tips. Of course if the amount of the wages and the tips fail reach the amount of minimum wage the restaurant is supposed to pay the difference. I've never been anywhere the management posted this information or bothered to tell the employees of the fact.)

Read the book, learn the lesson, especially if you haven't been there. It takes a deal of courage and self respect to work at a low paying job and to support your family. If it's all you can get you don't quit, you work and do your best turning in a good job, even in a (so called) menial job.

What are my reservations about the book? Well the author could never actually be what she was going "undercover" to portray herself as. She could always quit and go back to her "real life". This of course slanted her view..and (please forgive me if you don't get this...or if you're Barbara Ehrenreich) it seemed to me that her "voice" was always a bit condescending about the people she was dealing with, the ones she was concerned about. Do these people need "more government intrusion" or simply fairer treatment, a fair day's work and a fair day's wage.

The book holds up an actual view of life even if a bit skewed.

Mam z tą książką problem, a właściwie mam problem z autorką. To reportaż wcieleniowy, czyli sytuacja kiedy reporterka by zdobyć informacje na jakiś temat zmienia swoją tożsamość by wejść w sam środek jakiejs społeczności, grupy, etc. Spotykam się z takim rodzajem dziennikarstwa po raz drugi (a moze trzeci?), pierwszym bardzo udanym był „Przyszło nam tu żyć. Reportaże z Rosji” Jeleny Kostiuczenko, przy którym ani przez chwilę nie czułam zażenowania czy niestosowności. A u Ehrenreich było mi niewygodnie i niezręcznie co chwile.
Jest pierwsza dekada lat dwutysięcznych, autorka zatrudnia się jako kelnerka, sprzątaczka, a potem sprzedawczyni w różnych miejscach w Stanach, by dowiedzieć się jak sie żyje za najniższe stawki, i czy w ogóle da się za nie godnie przeżyć. Oczywiście ukrywa swoją tożsamość przed pracodawcami czy współpracownikami (no chyba, że już po zwolnieniu postanawia odkryć karty przed kolegą/koleżanką i wyjawić, że wcale nie jest biedna i to tylko eksperyment). Można się zastawiać nad etyką takiego działania czy rzetelnością doświadczeń, bo autorka wie, że cokolwiek się stanie zawsze może wrócić do dawnego życia. I ok, taki jest zamysł książki i przyjęty rodzaj antropologii - sięgając po nią wiedziałam za co sie zabieram. Ale niestety za dużo tu autorki a za mało merytorycznej wiedzy o gospodarce, prawie pracy, programach pomocowych, etc. I dla mnie zdecydowanie za dużo poczucia humoru (!), klasizmu i wzgardy, i tego wiecznego zdziwienia w stylu „i wy tu tak żyjecie?”.
„Jak ubogie są moje współpracownice? Sam fakt, że ktoś pracuje w charakterze sprzątaczki, można prima facie uznać za dowód desperacji, a przynajmniej skutek błędów i rozczarowań”.
I oczywiście ukazanie perspektywy osób, którym nie starcza na godne życie, nie dlatego, że są leniami, ale dlatego, że system jest jaki jest, jest niezwykle cenne. Niemniej mnie podczas czytania coś uwierało, nieodpowiały mi niektóre reakcje autorki czy wypowiedzi. I na koniec sama nie wiem co mam o niej myśleć

As someone who grew up as part of the "working poor," I have had all of these kinds of jobs myself at one time or another. Most of my family members still do. So for me, Nickel and Dimed was kind of a big "DUH." I mean, seriously, does any of this come as a surprise to anyone? Did anyone ever really think it was easy to make ends meet off of a low/minimum wage job? It's a preposterous idea.

In my opinion, Ehrenreich's writing has a patronizing undertone, and seeks to make the reader feel pity for the poor, helpless low-wage workers that she somehow manages to dehumanize in the process. It's not a very accurate portrayal of the ingenuity and strength that is takes for people to survive under these circumstances. I'm no fan of pity parties and I think it's a very one dimensional picture of the subject that she paints.

She also doesn't do much to analyze the broader issue and she doesn't offer any alternatives, solutions, or new ideas to deal with the problem.

It was kind of like she wrote the book out of her own bourgeoisie guilt or something and just wanted to give herself a big old pat on the back for understanding poor people.

What I found most fascinating was the writer's progress through this account. Her first job she couldn't handle, she walked out. Her second job, she decided to organize her co-workers, and they just wouldn't be organized. Her third job, she decided to be the best worker Walmart had ever had, she just knew she could have gotten that raise to $7.75 if she'd stayed.

Be warned: This book nearly started a fight in my book club. Everyone's reactions were really interesting.

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.

This was a very readable, if not particularly shocking exposé of some of the realities of living on minimum wage in the US. I wouldn't have thought it could be all that controversial, but looking at other reviews I see it being denounced as a "Marxist rant" and "condescending slumming" and similar. Which makes me think that most of these people have never met a Marxist, and didn't bother reading Ehrenreich's own contextualization of her experiment and its limitations.

But anyway, Barbara Ehrenreich got a number of minimum-wage jobs around the country in the late 1990s, and attempted to live on the proceeds (usually working two jobs at a time, or seven days a week). She struck out every time, though by her own admission there were some things she wasn't willing to do for the sake of the experiment (endanger herself, live in her car, actually go hungry). The audience for this experiment, which some readers seem to have missed, is not minimum wage earners themselves but those who believe that a job, any job, is the path out of poverty.

As someone who worked minimum-wage jobs part-time in high school and university, I could identify with much of what Ehrenreich flagged as being the emotional effects of this kind of labour (snappishness, seeing the bad in other people, becoming a worse person yourself, as well as exhaustion, stress, poor sleep and bad nutrition). Like Ehrenreich, my own experiences were always with a safety net -- living at home, or at least having the option of moving back home rather than put up with certain abuses. Even so, this brought up depressing memories of micro-aggressions, condescension, lowered self-esteem, customer threats, kowtowing to people who weren't very smart but had been promoted to manager because (this being the only theory that made sense) they were a man, rushing impossibly from one job to the next. After reading this, I'm thankful to at least have had my experiences in Canada and the UK, in decent cities, not hideous soulless big-box American urban peripheries.

And of course, the situation has just gotten worse since 2000.

I was captivated by this powerful book, and I felt tremendous empathy for the real workers chronicled by this journalist. Good premise for a book: she takes the most minimum wage type jobs and sees what it’s like to try to live in our society, and she shows just how nearly impossible that is. Barbara Ehrenreich is a journalist who can sure write an interesting, and unfortunately sobering, nonfiction book.