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Barbara Ehrenreich

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Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Paperback – May 1, 2002

by Barbara Ehrenreich (Author)

4.3 4,064 ratings

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Los Angeles Times Book PrizeWinner, 2001

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The New York Times bestseller, and one of the most talked about books of the year, Nickel and Dimed has already become a classic of undercover reportage.

Millions of Americans work for poverty-level wages, and one day Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that any job equals a better life. But how can anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 to $7 an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich moved from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, taking the cheapest lodgings available and accepting work as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart salesperson. She soon discovered that even the "lowliest" occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforts. And one job is not enough; you need at least two if you intend to live indoors.

Nickel and Dimed reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity -- a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate strategies for survival. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way America perceives its working poor.

Print length

240 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Holt Paperbacks
Publication date

May 1, 2002
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
ISBN-10

9780805063899
ISBN-13

978-0805063899
Lexile measure

1340L
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Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker

This exposé puts human flesh on the bones of such abstractions as "living wage" and "affordable housing." Ehrenreich worked, for a month at a time, at "unskilled" jobs—as a waitress and chambermaid in Florida, a housecleaner and nursing-home aide in Maine, a Wal-Mart clerk in Minnesota—to report on how people survive on wages of six or seven dollars an hour. In an easy, conversational style, she brings us the daily life of the working poor and shows that their diligence and good nature cannot earn them a place to live—a social worker advised Ehrenreich to move to a shelter—or medical or dental care or, in some cases, enough to eat. In her last chapter, Ehrenreich suggests that the working poor are "the major philanthropists of our society," sacrificing their families, their health, their privacy, and their leisure so that the rest of us can live more cheaply and conveniently.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

Review

". . . you will read this explosive little book cover to cover and pass it on to all your friends and relatives."
--Diana Henriques, The New York Times [Business Section]

"Jarring, full of riveting grit . . . This book is already unforgettable."
--Susannah Meadows, Newsweek

"Angry, amusing . . . An in-your-face expose."
--Anne Colamosca, Business Week

"With grace and wit, Ehrenreich discovers . . . the irony of being nickel and dimed during unprecedented prosperity."
--Eileen Boris, The Boston Globe

"Ehrenreich is a superb and relaxed stylist [with] a tremendous sense of rueful humor."
--Stephen Metcalf, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Barbara Ehrenreich . . . is our premier reporter of the underside of capitalism."
--Dorothy Gallagher, The New York Times Book

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0805063897
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Holt Paperbacks (May 1, 2002)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780805063899
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0805063899
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1340L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #158,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #53 in Labor & Industrial Economic Relations (Books)
- #89 in Poverty
- #227 in Economic Conditions (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 4,064 ratings

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Barbara Ehrenreich

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BARBARA EHRENREICH is the author of fourteen books, including the bestselling Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch. She lives in Virginia, USA.

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Jamie Huynh

A quite enjoyable book with a good lesson.

Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2013

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What can I say about this book? When I started reading it I was as appalled and shocked with the introduction as one might expect, she is going to give up her PH.D high salary lifestyle to go "mingle" with the minimum wage world so she can try to find some secret economy about the poor and than write a book about it? Sounded like a complete waste of time nonetheless demeaning like the poor was s disease that she was going to do research on. However as I got further into the book I knew that my concepts were going to change about her.The longer you stare into the abyss the longer it stares back at you, in chapter 1 of Nickel and Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich author of the book was preparing to set off into an adventure that eventually turns a bit out of hand. Ehrenreich in need of a minimum wage job to start off everything had filled out 22 applicants for jobs and none of them called back leaving the impression that the employers simply put in the advertisement solely as a "filler" to replace the ones that are going to quit or get fired. Having read this first chapter I could tell already this journey of Ehrenreich is going to be a lot more grueling than she signed up for, seeing as how they treat their employees as expendable workers with no skills. Ehrenreich in return had no choice but to accept a job as a waitress, a job that she didn't want to take seeing as how she already was one when she was 18 and did not much enjoy the job, however Ehrenreich soon realizes that the job was more than a job and she soon felt responsible for delivering the food to the customers in need and soon starts to bond with them in her workplace. The accountability for the customers Ehrenreich served soon escalated as she picked up the tab for a customer who spent most of his money on dental surgery wanting them to be happy, Ehrenreich states ""If you seek happiness for yourself you will never find it. Only when you seek happiness for others will it come to you", (20). It's as though this job is starting to grow on her and becoming a part of her very nature and instilling morals in her. After reading the first chapter of this book I am appalled and amazed at this, It reinforces everything of my ideals and philosophy as I believe that working hard and doing manual labor instills great morals and responsibility into a person and trains that person to appreciate things in their life more, not less. Ehrenreich soon finds out that there is no secret economy to the poor and their whole life is horrifying compared to her old one and even now she is well-off than most of her co-workers who are living in trailer parks or in their cars in front of a parking lot. What endows me with adrenaline even more was reading that when Ehrenreich tried to return to her old life to catch up on things, she soon realized she wasn't the same person anymore, the foreshadowing of her life that has been flipped is amazing. How I feel is that these workers are like everyday people and once you get to know them they become a part of you just like everybody else. In the end of all of this Ehrenreich only felt failure, she states "I am in a position to realize, for the first time in many years, that the tear ducts are still there and still capable of doing their job", (48) the thought going through her mind as she quitted both her jobs in a semi-dramatic fashion and soon came into the realization that she was human just as much as anybody else.
- Jamie Huynh Review

10 people found this helpful

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Imperial Topaz

One of the BEST Books I�ve Read

Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2004

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I thought this book was absolutely fantastic. I found it an easy, five-hour read of 221 pages. The negative reviews of this book, I believe, are coming from two sorts of people. First are those who wish the book to be something it is not. This book is NOT attempt to be a serious, sociological study. It is only what its author purports it to be-the experiences of ONE reporter, making three reasonable attempts, in three vastly different locales, to live at a minimally acceptable standard on the salaries offered in low-wage service positions.
Other criticisms of this book came from those who felt the author was a left-wing extremist, against the rich, advocating transfer payments from rich to poor. A few people ranted and raved, in their reviews, about what "solutions" she was advocating. I think these people didn't read very carefully. I did not find her advocating any solutions at ALL, only bringing up the dilemmas, and posing questions that we should ALL be posing. But to accuse the author of advocating things which she did not say, is akin to putting words in her mouth, by some people who literally feel threatened by anyone who asks the questions she poses!
The most overwhelming feeling I got from reading her book was of HOW RICH I AM (and I'm an American living in a third-world country)! Anyone who is feeling the least bit sorry for themselves in this life should read this book, and they will IMMEDIATELY feel better. Mainly, just having good food to eat every day, and being able to pay for medical, or dental, care whenever I need it is a true luxury that we all forget about, as well as having a comfortable roof over my head. We are all guilty of taking these things so much for granted, when we have them.
The most important conclusion the author draws in this book is that low-wage jobs are so far out-of-whack with the costs of housing, and that this is what is just killing people, and keeping them barely surviving. She shows how this situation has gotten worse in recent years. It is certainly true that most people in low-wage jobs are working two jobs to make ends meet. I know this from personal experience. My husband, a foreign immigrant to America for a time, worked in a hotel cleaning rooms. He was the ONLY person who did not go to a second job at the end of an 8-hour shift (as we fortunately didn't NEED him to do that). What this author, and most Americans, may not realize however, is that this is NOT just an AMERICAN problem. It is true that the more socialistic countries in Europe "distribute the wealth" to lower-income persons. But they are about the ONLY countries in the world that do (Canada may also). In MOST countries of the world, salaries are FAR out-of-whack with housing costs. And the disparity if FAR worse than in America. But there is one difference in America. America has a lot of laws making it illegal to have too many people living in an apartment, for example. You aren't allowed to have more people that two in an apartment for each bedroom. In third-world countries, these restrictions don't exist. So you could have ten people crowding into a one-bedroom apartment. And believe me, they sometimes do. It's the only way to make ends meet, for a lot of people. This is a problem that has been with us since the world began, and will continue. I don't have a solution. I am not rich. But I FELT SO RICH reading this book. This book will help any person to really freshly appreciate what they do have. I HIGHLY recommend it to EVERYONE.

27 people found this helpful

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Halifax Educator

How American social policy has failed workers.

Reviewed in Canada on September 26, 2022

Verified Purchase

This book was a comprehensive ethnography about people who are barely getting by. The author became a min wage earner to study the lives of those that society has forgotten. The book was absolutely amazing. A must read for any person concerned about the level of inequality in the US.

One person found this helpful

Harry Polman

Stuivers en dubbeltjes van Barbara Ehrenreich

Reviewed in Germany on November 1, 2022

Verified Purchase

De auteur, Barbara Ehrenreich, duikt in de Amerikaanse economie onder daar waar de uurlonen minimaal zijn. Zij probeert uit te vinden of het mogelijk is met dit soort uurloon bij een 40-uursbaan zelfstandig te kunnen leven zonder in geldnood te komen. Tijdens haar onderduik spreekt ze met tijdelijke collega's en managers. Regelmatig loopt zij tegen een muur op wanneer het einde van de maand in zicht komt. huren zijn hoog en een eigen huis is hebben is te duur. Velen zijn dus veroordeeld tot het wonen in motels en pensions waar het leven geen pretje is. Zeker als je ook nog kinderen hebt. Het boek is met vaart geschreven en geeft een goede inkijk in de omstandigheden van de laagst betaalden.

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Esther García

Como siempre, un libro indispensable de su autora

Reviewed in Spain on July 30, 2020

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Un estudio de la vida dura de las camareras y limpiadoras realizado por una magnífica escritora que fue capaz de vivir como ellas y con ellas

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Amrita Suresh

A Salute!

Reviewed in India on September 6, 2015

Verified Purchase

I very rarely write a review, the minute I finish reading a book, yet this particular master piece simply took my breath away! I want to thank the authoress for actually going under cover as a low wage worker in the US, just to show to the world just how difficult it is for the blue collar hardworking souls to survive! It's truly changed my perspective for life! A must read, indeed!

3 people found this helpful

Charles

Depressing But Importand Read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 19, 2013

Verified Purchase

Both England and America have a phenomena know as the working poor, these are people that work one or more jobs yet still cannot make ends meet.

This book was written by a journalist investigating what's it like to be a low pay worker in America.

The author took various low paying jobs and tried to survive on the wages and had a very tough time.
Jobs such as cleaning turn out to be very demanding physically leaving the workers with permanent damage to their bodys. The cleaning company charged $25 per person hour but only pays the worker $6.65 per hour.

The high cost of housing and low pay means workers cannot just give up their current job and look for another as they will not be able to pay their rent while looking for a job.

Other low pay workers cannot afford health care to fix heath problems, the health problems then cause them to lose their jobs and get even poorer.

Poor public transport in many parts of America means if you cannot afford a car you choice of jobs is limited to your local area only making the choice of work for the poor worse.

It comes obvious that been poor in America actually traps people when vital needs such as health care and transportation are only for people that can afford it. No wonder social mobility in America is so bad and the poor have decreased in wealth in the last 30 years while the rich have gotten even richer.

4 people found this helpful

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