Nickel and Dimed

In the book, Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich conducted an experiment of working different types of minimum wage jobs, in different parts of the country.
She first goes to Key West, Florida working as a waitress at Hearthside, and also a hotel maid. She is unable to keep her hotel job for very long because she couldn't handle the stress and energy for 2 jobs. Most of her co-workers were hardworking, poor people. Their living conditions were very low quality. Some people lived in trailer homes, hotels, apartments or even their cars. They depended on their partner, or worked another job. The co-workers tried to help each other out to survive, even though they had terrible working conditions. Because Ehrenreich was overworked she had constant headaches, minimal meals, and she was exhausted with no time to rest. She realized that living on minimum wage was harder than she expected it to be, and she finally had sympathy for low wage workers and understood what it was like. She had to live in a trailer nearby. Frustrated with her job, she quits and turns her trailer keys in.
Next she travels to Portland Maine, to become a maid and in addition to, a dietary aide. Her co-workers at the Maids, were poor, living with their parents, or living with other co-workers. Their working conditions were unacceptable with minimal breaks, barely anytime to eat a healthy meal. They also had strict rules about their cleaning routine with pin point specific directions, they weren't allowed to drink or eat anything while they were cleaning the customer's houses. The workers are all suffering from various pains, which causes them not being able to do particular types of work. Holly, Ehrenrich's co-worker ignores her pain until she is sent home by the boss, Tedd because Ehrenrich begged for her to go home. Her dietary aide position at Woodcrest was understaffed, so she was commanded to prepare the meals of all the Alzheimer's ward. She was nervous that she could easily get one of the meals wrong and it was a risk of giving the patient a wrong meal.
The final location, she had for her experiment was Minnesota. She decided to do retail, so she applied for various jobs. The housing availability was the worst in Minnesota. She had difficulty finding an adequate place to stay. Her last resort was to stay at a rundown motel that had no security. She got job interviews for Menards and WalMart, and wanted to apply for a local supermarket on the weekends. She was the most worried about passing the drug test and making enough money. She gets the job at WalMart and doesn't like it there. Her job is very monotone and repetitive. The workers don't get enough money for what they work for. Ehrenrich sticks together with her co-worker Melissa, and try to establish a union for all the WalMart workers, which doesn't end up working out. When Ehrenrich quits her job, so does Melissa.
Reader's Guide Question 16: Yes, I think her experience would be different in today's economy because it is harder to find minimum wage jobs. Our economy isn't very well and middle aged people are taking the jobs of teenagers because they are so desperate for a job. The working conditions would be a bit better because people fought for better rights, benefits, and laws for over working. There is now an enforced minimum wage but the cost of living is higher and in some places, workers' rights worsened. People's retirement funds are decreasing and a threat to Social Security and Medicare. And also the cost of transportation, housing and food prices are increasing.