The Challenges Faced In Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel And Dimed

Nickel and Dimed is a book by Barbara Ehrenreich and it explores if minimum wage or low paying jobs in the U.S. met the requirements of basic human needs such as food, water, and shelter. Before Ehrenreich begins her quest she laid out a few ground rules for the reader which were she cannot use any talents learned from her education or profession, she had to take the job that paid the highest and do her best to keep it, and she was required to take the cheapest places she could find so long as they provided satisfactory levels of safety and privacy. She also said she would always have a car, never allow herself to become homeless or go hungry. With this baseline she started her temporary life as a low wage worker in America in Key West, Florida. …show more content…
She finds a job at another restaurant called Jerry’s which is inadequately run. However due to time constraints, she can only pick one job and in accordance to her rules she picked the higher paying job. Due to troubling work standards, Ehrenreich finally quit her waitressing job and had a sporting time in Maine. After Maine, she relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota where she obtained a job in plumbing at Menards plumbing and as a (LOOK UP WHAT SHE IS) in Walmart. Some challenges were faced before she obtained these jobs because she (look up what activity) which caused her to worry about her drug test and she answered incorrectly three times on Walmart's questionnaire. Ehrenreich continues to drudge through low paying wage life until she decides to try to get her comrades at Walmart to unionize for better wages but leaves too soon to get results. Following this, she quits her experiment for good and returns back to her proper life. Using her experiences as a vehicle, Ehrenreich writes a conclusion that brings up political issues she felt needed fixing such as a hike in the minimum wage and an improved way of determining the poverty faced by the