Nickle and Dimed

In the novel Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich finds herself struggling while living a low-wage life. The first place Ehrenreich lives as an employee is Key West, Florida. She works as a waitress at a restaurant she identifies as the Hearthside, finding a trailer nearby to live in. She also works as a hotel maid, and finds doing both extremely difficult. At the Hearthside, she finds most of the workers struggling just as much as her with rent and living expenses. She also finds a lot of frustration and anger. Ehrenreich finds out a lot about her co-workers. Gail lives in a place for $250 a week with a roommate that drives her crazy. Claude the cook (along with other Haitian men) live in crowded situations. Pregnant Annette lives with her mother. Marianne lives with her boyfriend in a one person trailer for $170 a week. Billy lives in a $400 a month lot. Andy, another cook, lives on his boat. Tina, another waitress, lives in a room at the Days Inn for $60 dollars a night with her boyfriend. Joan lives in her van. She leaves Key West before her trial month is even up, struggling to live a succesful life like many of her ex-co-workers.
In the next chapter of Ehrenreich's life as a low-wage worker, she moves to Portland, Maine. She works for The Maids, a housekeeping service. She takes another job at a nursing home she identifies as Woodcrest. She also finds working in Portland very difficult. The manager at The Maids, is a complete jerk and a cheap one at that. She encounters co-workers at The Maids that don't get sick leave, dont get to go home when they are injured, and take the job just for the little extra money just to get them by. As a dietary aide at Woodcrest, Ehrenreich has to do her job plus everyone else's job one day, finding that it's not an uncommon thing.
Finally, Ehrenreich moves to Minneapolis, Minnesota. She finds that the avalibility of apartments, ecspecially cheap ones, are not common. She scores a job at Wal-Mart in the ladies department. She discovers that workers at Wal-Mart do not get overtime, have very strict rules, cannot use profanity, and cannot even speak the word "union". She also discovers that Wal-Mart workers have been fired for wanting better wages and benefits, but managers claimed that they were fired for breaking company rules. She stays in hotels the whole time she lives there, which are mostly unsecure and uncomfortable.
Many of Ehrenreich's co-workers are in hard situations and some they just can't ecscape of. Ehrenreich adapts to the low-wage life, but she still can't support herself, ecspecially without a living companion. She also finds that many of the workers can't quit their jobs for higher paying jobs because of transportation issues.