Nickel and Dimed; By Barbara Ehrenreich
A detailed Summary of Nickel and Dimed; By Barbara Ehrenreich
In the book Nickel and Dimed On (not) Getting By in America the author Barbara Ehrenreich, attempts to go under cover as a minimum wage worker. Her primary reason for going under cover is to see if she can "match income to expenses as the truly poor attempt to do everyday."(Ehrenreich 6) Also Ehrenreich makes it extremely clear that her work was not designed to make her "experience poverty."(6) After completing the assignment, which was given to her by an editor, she had planned to write an article about her experience. Her article was meant to reach the community that was financially well off and give them an idea how minimum wage workers deal with everyday life. Ehrenreich's motives gave her the tools to experience poverty from a statistical standpoint, but kept her from experiencing the problems poor people faced when it real

ly mattered, such as going hungry. In addition, on her first attempt in Florida, Ehrenreich found out that the assignment entailed getting close with the low wage workers and feeling their hardships.
During the very first pages of the book, the reader becomes very aware of Ehrenreich's financial situation. She is a well off worker who has not had a minimum wage job since she was 18 years old. That is what makes this book interesting, the fact that the reader is learning of the struggles of the poor just as Ehrenreich had. She portrays each person very well and makes one get to know the people and their different struggles. She does this in addition to finding out if the math works out between minimum wage and housing, bills food etc. Because she goes from the top to the bottom, the first hand experience and flat out shock a
Some common words found in the essay are:
Florida Ehrenreich, Barbara Ehrenreich, minimum wage, minimum wage worker, wage worker, Getting America, , wage workers, makes book, book reader, barbara ehrenreich,
Approximate Word count = 562
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)
Category: Miscellaneous
Saved Paper
Newest Essays
- My Personal Value System
- Iraq and High Energy...
- The Development of English...
- Critique of a Research...
- Visiting the Elderly in...
- Ad Critique: Peters, Jeremy...
- Catell's Structure-Based...
- Current Diabetes Epidemic:...
- Job Search: Push Pull...
- Proposal: Social...
Testimonials
-
"Thank You So Much!!! You have saved me once again!!!"
Jack M. -
"With so many papers to chose from, I was able to get ideas to help me with all of my classes. Thank You!"
Brian P. -
"I've used this site for the last 3 years to help me come up with ideas for my papers."
Sara J. -
"I use this site every week to help me write my own papers!"
Rachel W. -
"I love this site!!!"
Marie N.
