Analysis Of Barbara Ehrenreich´s Nickel And Dimed

Nickel and Dimed

The book ‘Nickel and Dimed’ follows the author Barbra Ehrenreich on her on a journalism experiment to see how someone could get by on the minimum wage of $6 or $7. While Barbra is familiar with the poverty issue in American she herself with a Ph.D. and comfortable life was not familiar with feeling the effects of poverty. Before the experiment started Barbra set down some ground rules, first being, she could not search for jobs that require skills from her higher education (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 4). All the jobs she applied for had to be starting level jobs that someone coming out of high school could obtain. Second rule, she had to take the job offering the highest wage, and do her best to hold the position (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 4). She was to try her hardest at all the jobs and not slack off reading or try to speak out against management

or the corporation. Rule three, she had to take the cheapest housing available that was also safe and had privacy (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 4). Along with the rules she also set some limits. First being she would always have a car, in the first city she used her own, for the last two she rented one with her credit card (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 5). Secondly, she ruled out being homeless, if she couldn’t pay for the second month’s rent the experiment for that city would end (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 6). Thirdly, if she ran out of money for food she would use her own debit/credit card to buy food (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 6). To started the experiment Barbra gave herself $1,300 for startup costs which included $1,000 for rent and deposit, $100 for living needs like groceries, and a left over $200 to use in case of emergencies (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 27).
Even though Barbra made up the rules herself before the experiment, she did break them a few times. Barbra broke the first rule in Key West during an interview for a waitressing job. She told the interviewer that she could greet Europeans with their correct greeting (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 4). The second rule was broken four times through out the experiment. The first time she broke her second rule was in Key West, Barbra walked out during her waitressing shift at Jerry’s (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 48). Though this could be argued because technically rule two doesn’t say anything about quitting abruptly, in my opinion she did not try her hardest at the job by walking out mid-shift during a difficult shift. In Maine she breaks the rule again when a co-worker Holly hurts her ankle and is forced to keep working (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 110). Barbra yells at her boss over the phone and then tries to get her fellow co-workers to stop working saying it’s a “work stoppage, a strike” (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 111). While Barbra was in Minnesota, Menards was offering her a higher wage than Wal-Mart. Barbra felt she could not handle the eleven-hour shifts Menards was wanting so she decided to take the job at Wal-Mart instead (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 4, 149). While at Wal-Mart, Barbra multiple times brought up how they need a union. She even takes a paper that features a strike from another company and puts it inside the break room at Wal-Mart (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 182-187). Barbra breaks her third rule only once, she had the opportunity to sleep at Budget Lodging where she would have a dorm bed and a locker for her belonging for $19 a night (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 171). She decided not to stay there because it was across town from her job at Wal-Mart. Again one could argue though that this does not break the rule, considering the rule includes privacy, which was lacking at Budget Lodging. Though the author herself said she could have just switched jobs (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 171).
Barbra was in three cities for her experiment, Key West Florida, Portland Maine, and Minneapolis Minnesota. In all three cities it was challenging to find affordable housing, especially one that a single person with one job could afford. In Key West Barbra had some help because she started out with 1,000 for rent and deposit but even with that she could only afford to live in a $500 cabin that was 30 miles away from town (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 12). She was later able to move to a tiny trailer closer to town by taking the deposit from the cabin, the $400 she saved from working and her $200 in case of emergency money. Trailer 46 and the Overseas Trailer Park while close to town had many flaws, it was so small the sink and stove separated the living space from the bedroom and Barbra’s knees rubbed against the shower while on the toilet (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 39). Barbra was better off than most of her co-workers though, some living in motels, one on a boat house, a young girl pregnant living with her mother, and the rest living with family, significant others or sharing rooms with a roommate. The price of housing was too high for someone to afford by alone with just one job (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 25-26).
After leaving Key West Barbra headed to Portland, Maine with $1,000 left over from Key West.

The first few nights Barbra stays at Motel 6, which had questionable hygiene (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 53). Barbra tried many places for housing first being Glenwood Apartment which was $65 a week with a shared bathroom and kitchen, with someone described as a “character, but clean” (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 55) but during the tour Barbra could not even see the kitchen because there was a man sleeping in it and the room she would be staying in had no window (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 56). While cheap the place was a bust. Barbra looks at another place for $150 a week and one for $110 a week but had very little privacy while being ground floor on a busy street (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 56). Which left her with Blue Haven Motel, which offered a cottage for $120 a week a $100 deposit including a bedroom, living area, with TV and linens included (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 56). Barbra in this city again is doing better than some of the people she is working with. One of the young girls at her cleaning job can only afford to have a small bag of Doritos for lunch even though she is living with her boyfriend and mother (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 78). Most of the people Barbra worked with were living with extended family while Pauline one of the older women owned her own house but all the bedrooms were full with her kids and grandkids so she slept on the couch in the living room (Ehrenreich, 2011, p.

79).
Minneapolis, Minnesota was the hardest city for Barbra to find a safe and affordable place to live. For the first few days she was lucky enough to have a free apartment to stay at thanks to a friend of a friend (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 122). Most of the places in Minneapolis were either too expensive or missing things like kitchen or just not safe. Hopkins Park Plaza at $144 did not have a kitchen (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 139). Most of the by week motels ranged from $200-$295, Barbra finally settled on Clearview Inn which was $245 a week, including a small room with one window without a net, AC or fan and the door does not bolt shut and no fridge or kitchen but it is only twenty minutes away from her job at Wal-Mart (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 151). After a few uneasy nights of staying at Clearview she has to be moved to another room because of plumbing issues, with a room not much better than the last (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 158). Feeling unsafe in her current living situation Barbra tries her hardest to find a new place to stay but everyone is full but Budget Lodging that does not have a room but a dorm bed and locker across town from her job (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 171). Barbra moves into a Comfort Inn (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 171) but after not being able to find a safe and affordable place to live, the experiment comes to a close (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 191).
According to Ehrenreich (2011), “Unlike many low-wage workers, I have the further advantages of being white and a native English speaker.” (p. 6). Being white and a native English speaker helped her multiple times during her study. While she was interviewing for the store Winn-Dixie the posters on the wall showed how to be ‘professional’ in those posters they featured white individuals (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 13). While trying to find a job in house keeping Barbra instead gets directed to waitressing, which seemed to be a trend of women of color working in house keeping and white women being waitresses (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 29). While Barbra was working as a waitress at Jerry’s she met a George a Czech man who knew extremely little English working as a dish washer (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 37). Barbra finds out that George is accused of stealing from the supply closet and because he knows almost no English he cannot defend himself and will end up getting fired. Barbra does not try to get Georges’ side of the story and also does not try to defend him (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 41). Unlike George, Barbra can speak English and would be able to defend herself and potentially not get fired. Also because she is white one could argue if she was caught in a similar situation her skin tone might help her get a less sever punishment.
Barbra Ehrenreich during her evaluation brings up her concerns about the way the poverty level is calculated.

She explains that the poverty level for any size family is figured by taking the cost of food and multiplying it by three (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 200). When this figure was first introduced in the 1960s the percent of money spent on food and housing in a family’s budget were similar. Comparing it to the percent of money spent on food (24%) and housing (29%) in the 1999s you’ll see there’s a lot more money being spent on housing (37%) than food (16%) (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 200). So on paper the poverty level seems to be decreasing and make it seem like most people in America are not living in poverty. This clearly is not the case, looking at the percentages given by Ehrenreich (2011), the cost of housing increased dramatically leaving many people still living in poverty. The way American is framing the poverty levels is very deceiving, many people are living in poverty, and finding it extremely hard to get out of poverty. Ehrenreich in her evaluation said, “the ‘working poor,’ as approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropist of our society” (Ehrenreich, 2011, p. 221). She says this because throughout every job she had and all the co-workers she encountered they all had families or personal concerns, but put those to the side for their shifts to make sure others were feed, had clean homes, clean fitting rooms and organized shopping centers (Ehrenreich, 2011,

p. 221). The workers gave their best efforts for their whole shift and getting very little pay and recognition for their hard work.
In every situation Barbra Ehrenreich found herself in I could relate to either from my personal life or from those in my family or friends. I have worked in multiple different jobs and had the same struggles she had in finding a job, because of places putting ‘help wanted’ but not actually hiring. I realized it’s not just me who had problems trying to find safe and affordable housing. When trying to find an apartment it took weeks of searching before I found something reasonably priced but also in a safe neighborhood. Even when finding a safe and affordable apartment I had to give up things like my place does not have a washer and drying in unit, my place is much smaller than I wanted and I have to live in a different city than I would prefer. So while I did not learn a lot of new things from the experiment I did realize that my struggles are felt by way more people than I assumed. While Barbra did this experiment about fifteen years ago, in my opinion the poverty level is still just as big an issue today.