Nickel And Dimed Summary

The book Nickel and Dimed, and ethnographic report, describes how the American women working low-wages job get by every day. In this book, Ehrenreich denounce that employment opportunities are not equal among lower class citizen and wealthier individuals, and the salaries most of the times are not sufficient to cover the necessities families have.
During Ehrenreich’s ethnographic work in Key West, Maine, and Minnesota she first encountered the impact of segregation and employment opportunities, while she was trying to live in five hundred dollars rent she finds out that employment opportunities are far from her house. This finding revealed the relations between housing segregation and employment discrimination, which limits the efforts of

individuals to enter the workforce. Furthermore, she also discovered the unequal and unfair treatment between the workers and their management; while working as a waitress, she uncovered practices were the employees didn’t have a change to take a break or were required to take a heavy work load while their supervisors literally just observed. In addition, she discus how policies protect business owners even when they violate basic human rights and don’t provide the necessary working conditions; as she says, “according to the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers are not required to pay tipped employees servers more than $2.13 an hour in direct wages” (Ehrenreich, p. 16) this policy keeps employees in the vicious cycle of poverty.
Another finding was the attitudes of the American people had when encountering the maids after they were done cleaning because of their appearance, they looked down upon them.

This apply not only to maids, but also to those individuals working in different sectors where they may not look as clean and worth as those working white collar jobs. In many cases, this limit employment opportunities. During this time, Ehrenreich developed a rash because of a chemical reaction, she was able to seek medical help in contrast to those women who did not have health insurance or could not afford medical help. As result she concludes that medical services lack of affordability and low-wages working families cannot access medical helps, because medical services were only offered during working hours any people in poverty cannot afford or are not allowed to miss

work.
Even though she tried her best to submerge in this environment, her privileges were predominant as she was not capable of going into this field totally exposed: no car, regular work clothes, make up, and even her vocabulary in many cases this gave her better treatment and more opportunities to advance.

Her personal experience restricted her at some points to clearly see the reality of the women working as maids. For example, she unintentionally offended the other women when she assumed that everyone can pass the test to work at Mary maids. In my opinion, this was somewhat unethical. Furthermore, she became somewhat frustrated as “better and higher paying jobs were available” -however they did not make an attempt to switch; later on, she gained knowledge that not everyone has the same mobility, or is able to switch employments and wait two weeks to receive a paycheck as many of them live paycheck to paycheck and pay weekly rents or hotels. She also discovered who corporations (like Walmart) develop strategies of oppression. One example of this practices was during the interview at Walmart when the interviewer says: “WE don’t just want your muscles” (Ehrenreich, p. 59), the “we” makes an emphasis on the power a large corporation may have on its

employees
One of her accomplishment I celebrate is when she was able to help the employees at Walmart to unionized, making this a turning point for many employees serving future generations. Because of her education and level of experience, I feel that is necessary and her responsibility to stay with them until the end of the fight. Ehrenreich also claim that the concept of poverty differs vastly as the governmental policies dictate the definition and what benefits those individuals may receive. During her observations she discovered that poverty is dictated by the cost of food and not the housing crisis, but according to the National Coalition of Homeless, in 1998, it was necessary to make an average of $8.89 an hour to be able to afford a one-bedroom apartment, demonstrating that individuals making less than $8.00 an hour needed a second job or depended on governmental assistance in order to fulfil basic necessities.
She concludes with the thought that single mothers with children cannot survive without the welfare assistance, but it is necessary to have a better understanding on the impact the welfare reform (and restrictions) has in the long run. She blames the Democratic government for not acting as they did not want to find any flaws in a program they take credit for, but she fails to recognize that Republicans also took part in the process, as the Welfare Act started during the Nixon Administration.
In conclusion, and individual could work as hard as possible, but the opportunities for advancement are slim and it is necessary to look back at the welfare reform and to advocate for changes to improve the conditions of those living in poverty.