Nickel and Dimed

The author, Barbara Ehrenreich, makes a compelling argument in the introduction of the book. Her goal is to determine whether a single female worker can survive in the workforce on minimum wage. She will not use government aide including welfare, or other programs geared toward the underclass. I believe that her experiment will show many people the reality that there are people living in poverty that can barely make it by on minimum wage.

The author will also implement a number of rules throughout her experiment. She will only take the cheapest housing possible, she will only take the highest paying jobs, she will always have a car, and she will never fall back on her education in order to obtain a job. She tries to stick to these rules to the best of her ability. But there are some circumstances where she may be forced to break them. For instance, if she thinks she may go hungry one night she will use her ATM card to buy food. Or she will never allow herself to live in her car.

Now that we have covered the basics of her experiment let’s move on to the actual experiment. Her first experiment had taken place in Florida. She was to become a waitress at the restaurant called Hearthside. She works from 2:00 until 10:00 and made $2.43 an hour plus tips. There she begins to understand the theme of companionship. She befriends another server named Gail who watches out for her. But this is also where she breaks one of her rules. She uses other languages to greet guests that she learned in college. This brings her tips but risks exposing her cover.

While at the restaurant she learns or the resentment the servers and cooks have toward the managers. She finds out how the workers used to like the managers, before they were managers, but the title meant they gave up the care toward the worker and adopted a care toward the corporation. This can be seen on Page 23 in the book where the author talks about a mandatory meeting where the managers lay down many new rules which the workers don’t take to very well.

The Hearthside is also where she met many new people who are living the same situations that she is experimenting. She meets people like Billy a cook, a busboy named Timmy, and a Haitian immigrant named Claude who, lives in a crowded apartment with his girlfriend.

The next restaurant she goes is Jerry’s, because “Jerry’s attracts more customers than the gloomy old Hearthside. Here she meets a 19 year old Czech immigrant named George who has only been in America for one week. The author begins to bond with him and makes it her goal to try and teach him how to speak English.
In order to cut the cost of gas she moves out of her apartment and into trailer number 46 at the Overseas Trailer Park. The trailer is 8 feet in width and is shaped like a barbell inside. The place is not close to and supermarket but is across the street from a liquor store.

I believe she is doing a great job. So far she has been able to survive and try and help other people out. Hopefully she will be able to keep this up for the rest of the book.