Nickle and Dimed

To research the struggles of those living in poverty, Ehrenreich leaves her home and stable lifestyle and lives as though she herself is in poverty. One of the greatest concerns facing her is having enough money for rent payments, food, and for gas for her car.Trying to juggle her expenses becomes a real problem for her in Key West, where Ehrenreich spends much of her time driving to and from her workplace. In an attempt to resolve her money situation, Ehrenreich picks up two jobs. However, it is a struggle for her to work an 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. shift at one restaurant and a 2:10 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. shift at another. As she decides this schedule is too stressful and tiring both physically and mentally, she leaves one job. Ehrenreich then finds that she cannot continue to drive 45 minutes to her job as she will use most of her income on gas. She decides to move into a trailer closer to her workplace in order to cut down on the amount of gas she will use. This move allows her to pick up a second job, housekeeping, at a nearby hotel. Through this ordeal, Ehrenreich learns of the astonishing housing situations of many of her co-workers. Some of them live in trailers, like Ehrenreich did, or hotel rooms and others even have to find shelter in their cars.
The trend of working two jobs to make ends meet continues as Ehrenreich moves to Maine where she works jobs at a maid service and in the food service department of a nursing home. In Maine, Ehrenreich struggles to find cheap housing like many others in poverty. She stays in a Motel 6 upon arrival, but decides that the $59 a night is too expensive for her low income, so she begins to search for a cheaper situation. Although the $120 a week is a stretch, the apartment Ehrenreich moves into comes with appliances and is more economical than the hotel room and other housing she used previously. Finding affordable housing is consistently one of the major struggles that Ehrenreich deals with, and shows her a real problem with low wage jobs. Ehrenreich also ran into difficulty while working at the maid service as the strenuous labor and strict rules offered little time for relaxation. However she needed to keep the maid job in order to make enough money for housing, food, and gas.
Throughout her ordeal, Ehrenreich finds that those in management positions are not as friendly as they appear to patrons. In her places of employment, the supervisors tended to be brash to workers, adopting attitudes of superiority. This was eye-opening to Ehrenreich as she soon sees that those in poverty have to worry about not only housing and low incomes, but also about not upsetting their managers. Another common trait that Ehrenreich observes is that many of her low income co-workers take breaks to smoke. Although cigarettes are expensive, those in poverty use them to relieve their stress. Addiction to nicotine means they must continue to purchase expensive packs of cigarettes. putting a strain on how and where money is spent. On their smoke breaks, Ehrenreich finds that workers bond, especially when they cover for each other when sneaking smokes.
In the Evaluation chapter, Ehrenreich argues that "wages are too low, and rent's too high." She believes that this is due to the rich shutting the poor out of the housing market through outbidding on properties, as well as the rich's ability to invest in stock. Housing has become too expensive for those in poverty, yet remains affordable for those with higher paying jobs. Ehrenreich notes that the housing subsidy she received before this experiment would let a low-income family have a better housing situation. However many in poverty are not able to get subsidies, mortgage-interest deductions, or other opportunities of extra money for housing. Ehrenreich discusses that wages are low, and employers are not keen to raise pay. She reveals that in an attempt to appease employees, many employers will offer free meals, aid with transportation, or give discounts because it is cheaper than giving raises.

10. I think a living wage should be calculated by the amount of time spent working each day and how laborious the task is. However I also believe that the amount of experience a worker has should be taken into account and one with more experience should receive a higher income.