Analysis Of Barbara Ehrenreich´s Nickel And Dimed

Nickel and Dimed, written by Barbara Ehrenreich, is about a middle-classed woman who does an experiment with the poverty in America. Barbara Ehrenreich workers as an author, but also has a Ph.D. With roughly 45 million Americans living below the poverty level, Ehrenreich attempts to work in three different states, at different jobs working for only minimum wage. She sets a few rules for herself that she is not allowed to break to keep her living situation as minimalist as possible and save the most amount of money that she possibly can. When filling out job applications, she does not use her true identity. Ehrenreich portrays herself as less educated with little work experience. She conducts this experiment voluntarily, to understand how others live and how what they do to try to get by. The experiment shows how one who is living under the poverty level works to get by and how it is nearly impossible to live on less than minimum wage.
Barbara Ehrenreich starts off in Key West, Florida. While there, she finds an apartment for $500 monthly rent. She began to apply for different jobs that she could possibly receive as well as learn more about the amount of low wage jobs. Ehrenreich does not get a job for several days until she is finally hired at Hearthside as a waitress. Her starting of salary is $2.43 …show more content…
She went to three different locations; Key West, Portland, and Minneapolis to get a clear outlook on the different poverty levels. Her observations show that working under minimum wage and working to find a suitable, yet inexpensive way of living. Ehrenreich worked to provide only for herself and had difficulty, yet there are people working to provide for their family and not just a single being. This experiment shows how it is nearly impossible to be living in poverty and working for less than minimum wage in the United States