Nickel and Dimed Both Yesterday and Today

Since the beginning of written history, when societies formulated the ideas that govern its members today, a rift existed between certain groups within it. Generally, differences in race, gender, and economic status caused a separation between people that still exists in the modern world. The lives of those within different socio-economic classes vary so greatly that if a member of one class tries to live as one of another, he or she might find it hard to even survive. Author Barbara Ehrenreich successfully lived as a lower-class woman and recounted the events of her temporary lifestyle in her bestseller, Nickel and Dimed. Although Ehrenreich completed her studies within the last decade, her experiences reflect many of the same issues that the uneducated “living poor” have to cope with, especially when she lived in Florida and Maine.
Ehrenreich began her case study in Florida working as a waitress for two different restaurants, which she renamed out of privacy. Holding employment at these restaurants provided her with an opportunity to become close to those actually living on salaries just above minimum wage. She listened to their daily complaints and even found herself empathizing with them as she gradually discovered the hardships they endured. For example, she mentions that, “Tina, another server, and her husband are paying $60 a night for a room at the Days Inn. This is because they have no car and the Days Inn is in walking distance of the Hearthside” (Ehrenreich 26). Ehrenreich eventually recognizes the importance of managing money and choosing the best option for spending it when living off of such a low salary (28). Similarly, those who work entry-level jobs today are forced to survive on little funds. When asked to research entry-level jobs and potential homes, the class discovered that people who live like this on a daily basis also have to search for multiple ways to live and spend their money, as Ehrenreich and her fellow employees did.
After her stint in the restaurant industry, Barbara Ehrenreich moved to Maine to continue her studies. She took on two jobs as a maid for a cleaning service and as a dietary aide at a nursing home after a tedious job search that involved pre-employment screening, as most jobs do, as well as negotiating salaries with irritable employers (Ehrenreich 58). While on her job search, she lived in a motel until she could afford an apartment. She learns about more hardships endured by a new set of fellow employees, as she did in Florida. One such co-worker is named Maddy, who is a single mother tending to childcare issues and relies on her boyfriend’s sister as a babysitter, rather than a daycare facility (Ehrenreich 80). This woman’s struggle was also a factor that the class had to consider when performing the “living poor” simulation. Proper childcare was required for the child of each class member, and as more factors are introduced into the budget of a low-wage worker, surviving essentially becomes much harder. Ehrenreich recognized this each day during her case study, and those living in a similar manner today continue to see it as well.
Nickel and Dimed portrays the struggle its author undergoes when living on a minimum wage occupation. Today, many endure the same difficulties, despite the time that has elapsed since Ehrenreich published her experiences. Unfortunately, the “living poor” will probably be maintaining the same lifestyle ten years from now, unless a great economic change is implemented in the near future.