Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
by Barbara Ehrenreich
Read: 2004

Not Recommended (Unless you like to read between the lines)

"With some 12 million women being pushed into the labor market by welfare reform, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to do some good old-fashioned journalism and find out just how they were going to survive on the wages of the unskilled--at $6 to $7 an hour, only half of what is considered a living wage. So she did what millions of Americans do, she looked for a job and a place to live, worked that job, and tried to make ends meet." (Amazon.com)

I have actually been recommending this book to all of my friends. But I have not been recommending it because I believe it is true or even well documented. I have been recommending it because I believe it is a great opportunity to practice some critical thinking.

The Book is broken into 5 major sections. The Introduction, A Waitress in Key West, A Maid in Maine, A Walmart employee in Minnesota, and a Summary. All of the major concerns I have with the book apply equally to each of her 3 jobs, so I'll just concentrate on examples from here first job, A Waitress in Key West.

It's very easy to get caught up the huge number of minor issues I have with this book, but I'd like to focus on what I consider the fundamental problems.

Note: To say that their is no bias in this book is simply unpardonable. From her first statement about trying to get by on a low wage she says "But if the question was whether a single mother leaving welfare could survive without government assistance in the form of food stamps, Medicaid, and housing and child care subsidies, the answer was well known before I ever left the comforts of home. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, in 1988 - the year I stared this project - it took, on average nationwide, an hourly wage of $8.89 to afford a one-bedroom apartment."

You can find out all you ever wanted to know about this quote here.

Major Issues, Fundamental Problems

1. She doesn't list her total incomes and expenses.
• Her stated purpose in the book was to determine "how could anyone survive , let alone prosper, on six to seven dollars an hour" (Back Cover)
• How can you do this without telling me how much you made and how much you spent? You would think that there would be at least ONE SINGLE budget listed in the entire book. But if you think so, you'd be wrong.



2. No roommate.
• Gee, I sure would have liked to have the option to live by myself when I worked in these types of jobs.



3. No consistent wage or price information
• See constantly varies her wage and rent information between hours, weekly, monthly and yearly. It makes it near impossible to compare and estimate values unless you take the time to convert them all yourself.
• For example you might think that the difference between $7 an hour and $8 an hour is not significant. But if I say $1,120 a month and $1,280 which is $160 a month you can see how this could be a lot of difference.
• She will say things like "Bob only made $10 an hour and he has a $400 rent", after telling you that "June makes $8 an hour and can barely pay her $350 rent". Since Bob makes $1,600 a month and June $1,280 the difference is far greater than it appears.



4. She's a writer and has never had any 9-5 job in her life.
• Her comments about how hard it was to work 9-6 feel on deaf ears when you find out she's never had a regular 9-6 job in her life. As a writer she's been able to work whatever hours she wanted, with no supervision for over 20 years. OF COURSE! she's going to find a 9-6 job constraining. The pity overwhelm'ith me.



5. She acts as if she's never had a summer job in her life.
• Her descriptions of being a waitress, likened the job to being in hell.
• I've been a waiter, my brother was a waiter, both of my roommates were waiters, I have multiple friends who were waiters and waitresses,,,, And NONE of them mention a place as a "stomach leading to the lower intestine that is the garbage and dishwashing area, from which issue bizarre smells combining the edible and the offal: creamy carrion, pizza barf, and that unique and enigmatic Jerrys sent, citrus fart."(p29)



6. She's a wimp.
• She complains about a 45 minute commute like it's the end of the world. I'm sure she gets a lot of sympathy from my parents over this one.
• She doesn't want a hotel desk job, because it involves standing around to much but she get's to tired being a waitress running around all day.
• On page 42 you find out that when it's all said and done she last's at her two jobs for a total of 2 days. Yes, I know I was younger when I worked two jobs all summer, and Terry was younger when he worked full time and went to classes full time. But, she says over and over again that "I am an unusually fit person, with years of weight lifting and aerobics behind me". Umm,,,, sure.
• I love her comments on pg 194. "It's not just the work that has to be learned in each situation. Each job presents a self-contained social world, with its own personalities, hierarchy, customs, and standards. Sometimes I would be given scraps of sociological dat to work with, such as "Watch out for so-and-so, he's a real asshole." More commonly it was left to me to figure out such essentials a who was in charge, who was good to work with, who could take a joke". DUH?! What kind of world has this lady been living in for the past 50 years?



7. She does not try for advancement.
• She even mentions herself that their are waitress jobs that pay a lot of money, but she quickly dismisses the idea of working in any of them because of looks and age. She didn't actually TRY to get any of these jobs, she simply ASSUMED that she couldn't get them.
• The fact that she only worked 2 weeks in one restaurant before she found different restaurant to work in never clued her into the idea that there still might be a different restaurant that pays even more?
• She never mentions what waitresses who have been their a year manage to take home an hour. I know from experience that the good waitress with some experience manage to get more in tips than the newbies. And in a related note, after a year of experience your chance of getting a job in a "better" restaurant go up dramatically.



8. She starts from absolute scratch every time.
• I love her comment on page 28. "True, I haven't gone the lentil stew route yet, but that's because I don't have a large cooking pot, potholders, or a ladle to stir with (which would cost a total of about $30 at Kmart)". This one REALLY gripes me. Because of the way she starts out with absolutely nothing each time. And never carries over anything from the last month she presents an unrealistic scenario. She assumes that she will never have any assets that help her save money. So she does not count that if she does get her items to make stew and does save money in the next month that she will not be getting ahead. By this idea, does it mean she cannot save money for a down payment? Buy in Bulk? Freeze Leftovers? or do anything that other people do every day to get ahead in life?

Specific Issues
These example are taken from Section 1 unless noted

1. "30 percent of the workforce toils for $8 an hour or less", Introduction
• Exactly what do they mean by 'workforce'?
• Does this inclued all of the high school students working part time?
• How about all the people at their first job?
• How long do people stay at these salaries?



2. "1998 an hourly wage of $8.89 to afford a 1bd apartment", Introduction
• So that means you make $1,422 a month? After a $500 month rent that leaves you with $922 to live on. Notice how she clouds the issue. Is she talking about a single person or a single person with 1 child. The study she refers to seems to indicate a single person but her statement seems to indicate a person with a child. If the person has a child she would get income from the ETC. If the person didn't,,, I think $992 is PLENTY to live on.
• In depth on this topic here



3. "at least not in the low-tip off-season when I worked in Key West"
• So does that mean that in the 'Busy' Season she could make a lot more?
• Could we extrapolate that if she could get by in the 'low' season it would be a breeze to to get by in the busy season?
• Maybe She could even "SAVE" some money in the busy season?



4. "accompanied by cheap white wine on ice and whatever AMC has to offer"
• Does having AMC mean she had Cable Tv? Was Cable Tv included in the rent?



5. She says she made "as low as $5.15 an hr" at her first waitress job
• You would really have to suck to only make $3 in tips for an hour.
• "As Low as" implies that at other times she made more. How much more?



6. She comments about all of the employees who smoke.
• Sure is nice having all that extra money for cigarettes huh?



7. She talks about other employee stories(pg 26)
• The financial planner in me screams when reading these. I could go on in great detail about this section, but if you can't see for yourself how absolutely ridiculous these are I don't' think there is any hope for you in life.



• Gail shares a place with someone else for $250 a week or $500 monthly each. If She were to share a place with Barbara they would only pay $250 monthly each, and would each save $250.
• Claude shares an apartment with 4 people. She saying how bad this is, but doesn't tell us how much he saves on rent because of this.
• Annette live with her mother but she doesn't say if she pays rent at all.
• Marian and boyfriend split a trailer for $170 week (or $680 a month). So she is saving $500-(1/2 $680)=$160 more than Barbara.
• Tina and her husband stay at a hotel for $60 a day (1,800 a month) because she can't save up any money for a deposit on an apartment. But at the end of the month we find out that another server is moving in with them. That means Tina and her husband can save 1/3 of $1,800 which is $600 in one month and have their deposit.
• She gives 11 stories, what about the other employees. Awful small restaurant, or maybe their stories are a lot better?



8. She says "The first thing I discovered is that no job, no matter how lowly, is truly "unskilled"
• They taught you in less than a day, I would call that "unskilled".