Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed

Nickel and Dimed is a true story about Barbra Ehrenreich. A middle class essay writer who went undercover as a low wage worker to find out how they make ends meet in that time of welfare reform. she starts working at hearthside where she works 8 hours and makes $2.43 an hour plus tips. all of her coworkers there are either living with some one else who also pays the rent they cant afford by themselves or they live in a van or motel. She realizes that these people are either barley surviving or not really surviving. after about two weeks of working there Barbra realizes she wont be able to pay the months rent unless she gets a second job. so she gets one at this restaurant called Jerry’s. she only holds both jobs for a short time untill she quits the hearthside because her new job pays better. She also discovers that everyone at Jerry’s only manages to get by through having a second job. so she begs the lady at the hotel attached to jerrys to give her a housekeeping job. At Jerry’s, Barbra was going through a very stressful shift because of four tables that had crazy demands and her boss yelled at her so she walked out and gave up on the experiment. in that month she made $1040 and spent $517 on food, gas, phone and other. rent was $500 so she would have had $22 left to spend. This does not include the children other people will have to raise, healthcare, insurance, and clothing. proof that in 1998 you could not live on minimum wage alone.

I could somewhat relate to this because i work a minimum wage job and it sucks. at one point in my childhood my family did live in poverty and we lived on welfare and child support. My mother would stress a lot about finances and i would too even though i was a little kid. its a shame that you can work 40 hours a week and still have the need to live on welfare. No one should have to live on welfare if they are working 40 hours a week. Welfare isnt successful with how many people are on it but how many people that get on it and then later dont need it.