Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in AmericaThe New York Times bestseller, and one of the most talked about books of the year, Nickel and Dimed has already become a classic of undercover reportage. Millions of Americans work for poverty-level wages, and one day Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that any job equals a better life. But how can anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 to $7 an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich moved from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, taking the cheapest lodgings available and accepting work as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart salesperson. She soon discovered that even the "lowliest" occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforts. And one job is not enough; you need at least two if you intend to live indoors. Nickel and Dimed reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity -- a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate strategies for survival. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way America perceives its working poor. |
Contents
Serving in Florida | 11 |
Scrubbing in Maine | 51 |
Selling in Minnesota | 121 |
Evaluation | 193 |
a Readers Guide | 227 |
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Common terms and phrases
$7 an hour American apartment Barbara Ehrenreich bathroom Blue Haven break room Cheryl Mendelson cleaning Clearview clothes cook couple coworkers customers Deirdre English dishwasher drive drug test earn Ehrenreich employees fact feel floor Gail Hearthside Holly Hopkins Park housecleaning housekeeping interview Jerry's Key West kitchen labor ladies least leave live look low-wage workers lunch Maids Marge Melissa Merry Maids Minneapolis minutes month morning motel never Nickel and Dimed night offer Old Orchard Beach owners percent person pick poor poverty rack rent Roberta Sam Walton seems servers shift shirt someone T-shirts talk tell there's thing tion toilet trailer Twin Cities vacuum wages waitress Wal-Mart walk wear week weekend welfare reform Windex woman