Nickel and Dimed

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America is a book that takes a sociological look at the "working poor" in America. Authored by Barbara Ehrenreich, the book peers into the lives of American women who were forced back into the labor market following welfare reform. "Working poor" refers to an economic class within society that is employed, but is hampered in its ability to achieve financial stability, and is said to "live from paycheck to paycheck." It is similar in some ways to George Orwell's much earlier Down and Out in Paris and London.

Storyline

During a lunch conversation with Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper's, Ehrenreich proposes a journalistic approach to the effects of welfare reform, an infiltration of the "unskilled" work market; unbeknownst to her, she would be the one investigating. Securing funds for unexpected expenses, approximately $1000, she leaves her home and her middle-class existence, with a few personal items and her car, for a few months of low wage work.

Starting off in her backyard, Ehrenreich searches for lodging and a job in neighboring Key West, Florida. Securing jobs at two restaurants, "Jerry's" and "Hearthside", fictitiously named, in consonance with other locations and people throughout the book, and a one-day housekeeping stint, she works for two weeks before succumbing to an extremely busy night at Jerry's; after walking out mid-shift, Ehrenreich heads to Portland, Maine, sans automobile, for a fresh start.

Beginning anew, Ehrenreich lands two more jobs after a four day search, one as a dietary aide at a nursing home and another as a maid at a cleaning franchise. Unable to deal with work overload and work-related stress, she heads to her final destination, Minneapolis, Minnesota where she works at Walmart before ultimately ending her investigation. With the odds stacked on her side, a college education culminating with a Ph.D. in biology, a car, only one person to support, and initial funds, Ehrenreich fails to sustain a suitable lifestyle.

Social issues

Throughout the exposé, Ehrenreich combats the "too lazy to work" and "a job will defeat poverty" ideals held by many middle and upper-class citizens. Highlighting problems with the argument, Ehrenreich reveals many of the difficulties associated with low wage jobs.

Foremost, she attacks the notion that low-wage jobs require "unskilled" labor by describing how the work required incredible feats of stamina, focus, memory, quick thinking, and fast learning. Constant and repeated movement creates or contributes to repetitive stress injury, pain must often be worked through to hold a job in a market with constant turnover, and the days are filled with degrading and uninteresting tasks (e.g. toilet-cleaning and shirt-reordering).

She argues "personality" tests, questionnaires designed to weed out "incompatible" potential employees, and urine drug tests, increasingly common in the low wage market, deter potential applicants and violate liberties while managerial apathy and austereness contribute to class separation and promote an unhealthy, stressful work environment.

She reports that "help needed" signs don't necessarily indicate an opening, more often their purpose is to recruit applicants in an effort to sustain a large worker pool. She also argues one low wage job is often not enough to support one person let alone a family; with inflating housing prices and stagnant wages, this practice increasingly becomes difficult to maintain. Many of the workers encountered in the book are forced to live with relatives, strangers in the same position, or in their cars in parking lots.

She concludes by responding to the frequent claim that low-wage workers, recipients of government or charitable services like welfare, food, and healthcare, are simply living off the generosity of others. Instead, she suggest, we live off their generosity:

When someone works for less pay than she can live on ... she has made a great sacrifice for you ... The "working poor" ... are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else. (p. 221)

Criticism

While a New York Times bestseller, Nickel and Dimed has its fair share of critics. Many question some of the decisions she makes while investigating. Among the debated is her insistence on living alone (she could have saved money by sharing a room and splitting rent with other low wage workers). Others argue she intentionally failed so she would be vindicated in believing the situation was impossible. Complaints about her passing use of marijuana (she admits to a weekend "indiscretion"), liberal slant, and anti-corporate attitude round out most other criticism of the book.