Preview

Minimum Wage Workers In Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel And Dimed

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
505 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Minimum Wage Workers In Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel And Dimed
In Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich plunges into the world of minimum wage workers. In her immersion, Ehrenreich attempts various types of minimum wage jobs such as those that would be categorized as service work like a waitress or a house cleaner. Ehrenreich expresses not only the difficulty of these jobs, but the behavior in which people acted towards her. She explains that once she entered the world other service work she was seen as lower standard of human, if she was “seen” at all, since many times Ehrenreich would feel invisible to the rest of the world. In addition, sometimes she was not even seen as a human at all, but instead an animal or machine. This was seen most prominently with her time spent as a maid.
Ehrenreich emphasizes
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Nickel and Dimed and the Working Poor
    • 2711 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Nickel and Dimed and the Working Poor

    My reaction to reading each book was very different for each reading. The Working Poor by Shipler seemed to me to be not as personal to the writer as Nickel and Dimed by Ehrenich was. I understand that The Working Poor was personal as will but the writer was writing about personal stories from other individuals, looking from outside the box and then talking about someone else’s stories with his own words. I would have to say that reading Nickel and Dimed was a lot more interesting and was a bit more personal from the writer’s views. Ms. Ehrenich was willing to get down to the behind the scenes action in her reactions from other people that think she is like everyone else in the workforce.…

    • 2711 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Barometer Rising Analysis
    • 601 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Barometer Rising Analysis

    A prevalent theme in Barometer Rising by Hugh MacLennan is women are not seen as equals to men in this time period. This theme often expressed using the character Penelope (Penny) Wain. Penny works as a ship designer in a mainly male shipyard. There are few women in the ship designing field and some men do not approve of Penny’s position in the shipyard. Simon Perry, an employee at the shipyard, admits to Penny, “How the likes of you works in a place like this beats me . . . It ain’t natural for a woman to be smart at this sort of work.” (MacLennan, 13) Not only does Simon find it difficult to believe that Penny actually works at the shipyard, he claims women are not supposed to be good at this work anyway. Men in this book see…

    • 601 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Barbara Ehrenreich Lower Class Jobs
    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Barbara Ehrenreich Lower Class Jobs

    Matthew Crawford and Barbara Ehrenreich both obtained a higher education; Crawford with a PhD in political philosophy and Ehrenreich in biology. The two are very educated individuals who were now experiencing, "lower class jobs" yet they have very different attitudes toward the line of work that they pursue. Barbara enrolls in working at a restaurant named Jerry's, she tells the reader all about her horrid experience. She applied to work at a restaurant like Jerry's as an experiment, to see how others live, the brutal conditions they undergo. She speaks negatively about the job, expressing the terrifyingly horrible conditions employees face on the daily. While Barbara experiences a nightmare, Mathew Crawford dips into the line of mechanics,…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Nickel And Dimed Analysis
    • 2011 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Nickel And Dimed Analysis

    In “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America”, Barbara Ehrenreich, a well-off white woman with a Ph.D. in Biology questions how low-income workers, especially females, make a living. Due to the welfare reform, 4 million women were about to have to enter into the workforce, usually for less than minimum wage. Ehrenreich decides to make an experiment out of her ideas. She decided she would travel to three different cities: Key West, FL., Portland, ME., and Twin Cities, MN. (all picked based off of the low salary there), and attempt to live as a regular low-income woman. She wants to find out how they make their income work and what they do to get by. Ehrenreich makes a set of…

    • 2011 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Lower Class In Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel And Dimed
    • 910 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Lower Class In Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel And Dimed

    Not being in the lower class is a privilege to the people who witness how difficult it is to live in those conditions and imagine what it would be like to live off of lower class jobs. Barbara Ehrenreich saw this and decided that she wanted to experience what it would be like and experience the hardship that they push through. Barbara discusses the difficulty of living in the lower class with the use of her first point of view/ honesty and her use of figurative language. In the novel, “Nickel and Dimed”, Barbara Ehrenreich uses a sarcastic, dramatic tone to support her argument that people who live in the lower class have a difficult time getting by with the present American economy.…

    • 910 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Critical Review: Nickel and Dimed
    • 1401 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Critical Review: Nickel and Dimed

    Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich is a mentally challenging read in more ways than one. In this book, Ms. Ehrenreich guides us through her adventure into starting over from the bottom of the social barrel. Her experiment with poverty begins with an agenda, a few amenities, some rules, and a lot of ambition to dive into her new lifestyle. The overall take from this book I received is one that left me critically thinking. Ehrenreich’s uses her arguments, examples, and evidence to state and support her conclusion: the working poor should be paid more. However, her final verdict is not one I am not entirely against, nor do I find it practical. After reading her story and doing some analyzing of my own, I’ve decided that her argument seems valid, yet, her conclusion standing alone does not.…

    • 1401 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Abraham Cahan's "A Sweatshop Romance".
    • 1067 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Abraham Cahan's "A Sweatshop Romance".

    In his story "A Sweatshop Romance," Abraham Cahan does a good job of creating a clear visual of the activities that occurred at the coat-making factory of Mr. Leizer Lipman, a Jewish-American who got married to a woman from a poor town in Western Russia. In this story, there are certain propagandistic situations as well as anxieties and concerns that relates to class-consciousness in the twentieth century. According to the story, Mrs. Lipman, the proprietor's wife and a co-owner of the business occupied a low social position at her birthplace compared to some visitors that had recently arrived from her hometown. One day, some visitors were invited to the coat-making factory for an "inspection" of the business. During the visit, Mrs. Lipman was trying to use the business to show off so as to bring herself to an "equal social position" to that of her visitors'; however, some of her employees felt downgraded and insulted by her, and her efforts were thwarted by her employees' refusal to allow themselves to be treated as "servants" in front of the visitors.…

    • 1067 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    "Nickel and Dimed" Essay on the statement "There are no secret economies that nourish the poor; on the contrary, there are a host of special costs."
    • 1072 Words
    • 3 Pages

    "Nickel and Dimed" Essay on the statement "There are no secret economies that nourish the poor; on the contrary, there are a host of special costs."

    " There are no secret economies that nourish the poor; on the contrary, there are a host of special cost", meaning that there isn't any help for the poor but yet they have to pay for everything they need and have. Although it may be true in some cases but I disagree with the statement. The reason why I disagree is because it all depends on the person's situation. As for Barbara Ehrenreich she bases it on her co-workers life on how some struggle just get by without support. Unfortunately they are in a bad position where they are not able to receive support from others around them or simply because they're not motivated enough to do something about it and move on.…

    • 1072 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    The Role of Women (Duddy Kravitz)
    • 1404 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Role of Women (Duddy Kravitz)

    In Mordecai Richler’s novel, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, women are represented to have a lower class than men. The women who are present in the novel include Yvette Durelle, Ida Kravitz, Minnie Kravitz, Linda Rubin and Sandra Calder. Each of these female characters are seen as helpless individuals unable to bear for themselves and left unsuccessful without men. Through Duddy’s never ending quest to own land to ultimately be successful, Richler depicts women in a negative way. They are seen as instruments to help men succeed and every so often used as traps for others. Therefore the women in this novel do not have lives of their own as they are portrayed solely as part of other men’s lives. Such exists because the lives of the women were not once explored throughout the novel, it was always through the eyes of a man and since the women are not explored, therefore this results in a male dominated novel.…

    • 1404 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    A Dolls House: Huge Social and Economic Changes
    • 1342 Words
    • 6 Pages

    A Dolls House: Huge Social and Economic Changes

    The nineteenth century saw huge social and economic changes. Society shifted from a largely rural agricultural community of 'landed gentry' and land workers, to urban communities based on manufacturing more than ever before. One's place in society was defined by one's ability to make and control money. Those who controlled the money were the bankers and lawyers. Their ability to control money enabled them to control others' lives, including defining morals. The story starts with Nora when she borrows money from Krogstad, though Norsa's husband does not know about this. After a promotion they become wealthy and Nora starts to pay back the money. Krogstad works for Torvold, Nora’s spouse, who decides to fire Krongstad. In response to being fired Krongstad sends a letter saying what Nora has done, Torvold then gets angry, but after receiving a second letter that explains the true situation about how Nora was influenced he is happy once again. However, Nora decides to leave the house.…

    • 1342 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Minimum Wage Case Study
    • 1173 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Minimum Wage Case Study

    My stance on minimum wage has stayed relatively the same however the reasons for my position on minimum wage have slightly changed. I am still for minimum wage and still believe that having a minimum wage is very important for the reason that it ensures that workers are paid a fair amount of money for the work that they complete. I also still believe that the federal minimum wage should be raised from $7.25 to $15. I came up with the amount of $15 per hour because I have read that if the minimum wage of 1968 remained parallel to inflation and had been adjusted for inflation then the minimum wage today would be not only greater than $7.25 but greater than $10 per hour. I still believe that the reason for having a minimum wage…

    • 1173 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Serving in Florida
    • 946 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Serving in Florida

    I could drift along like this, in some dreamy proletarian idyll, except for two things. One is management. If I have kept this subject on the margins thus far it is because I still flinch to think that I spent all those weeks under the surveillance of men (and later women) whose job it was to monitor my behavior for signs of sloth, theft, drug abuse, or worse. Not that managers and especially "assistant managers" in low-wage settings like this are exactly the class enemy. In the restaurant business, they are mostly former cooks or servers, still capable of pinch-hitting in the kitchen or on the floor, just as in hotels they are likely to be former clerks, and paid a salary of only about $400 a week. But everyone knows they have crossed over to the other side, which is, crudely put, corporate as opposed to human. Cooks want to prepare tasty meals; servers want to serve them graciously; but managers are there for only one reason - to make sure that money is made for some theoretical entity that exists far away in Chicago or New York, if a corporation can be said to have a physical existence at all. Reflecting on her career, Gail tells me ruefully that she had sworn, years ago, never to work for a corporation again. "They don 't cut you no slack. You give and you give, and they take."…

    • 946 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Minimum Wage During The Great Depression
    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Minimum Wage During The Great Depression

    Minimum wage was introduced during the time of the Great Depression by President Roosevelt. Citizens in states which have a higher minimum wage say that states with a lower minimum wage cannot live off of such a small wage, and that a higher minimum wage will create higher economy growth and more jobs and minimum wage is causing a significant gap between upper classes and lower classes. Businesses say that it will be difficult to pay their workers more and that they would have to layoff workers and reduce hiring as well. This would make it difficult for low-income workers to find jobs that require skill and it would also hurt low-income families. In general, minimum wage has drawbacks in terms of reducing job opportunities for adults and causing…

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Barbara Ehrenreich's "Struggle" to Live the Life of a Low Income Worker
    • 1099 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Barbara Ehrenreich's "Struggle" to Live the Life of a Low Income Worker

    In the novel Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehnreich, there are many hurtles she must overcome to experience the life of a low income worker. She sets some ground rules for herself, such as always having a car, and starting out with a certain amount of money for her down payment on an apartment. Although the rules are doable, she admits that she broke all of the rules at least once. Even though Barbara didn 't hold to her original plan, she was still able to reveal her appeals clearly.…

    • 1099 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Gender Globalization
    • 1033 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Gender Globalization

    What does it mean for something to be invisible? People can contribute their own reasons as to why something is invisible. And, in reality, a lot of these reasons can be true. But what about when we think about what can make a person invisible? Clearly, we as humans do not have any sort of super power that can make us invisible. So what does it mean when Barbara Erenreich and Arlie Hochschild say that there are women considered “the world’s most invisible women” (Global Women)? Firstly, the women they are referring to in this statement are the immigrant domestic workers that are in the global economy. The women are involved in the pink-collar work that for these immigrant workers generally includes nannies, housecleaners, and babysitters. It is, for the most part, part-time work that is fairly low-waged, needs little to no skills and offers few advancement opportunities. Over time this type of worker has been increasing its demand, for the reason of deindustrialization. Because of this increased demand for informal “pink-collar work” the working women migrated to affluent countries like the United States (Lecture 1/29). People in the United States, generally the ones who are affluent, tend to afford to hire one of these domestic workers as their private workers. They become so private that they do become “invisible” in a sense. Employers have begun to ignore the work that their workers are doing for them. They simply employ them and give them orders. They have no room to see them as family or friends, almost as if they were not human. They are just simply the employee.…

    • 1033 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More

Related Topics