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Summary Of Serving In Florida By Barbara Ehrenreich

602 Words3 Pages

During the past year, the protest, Fight for $15, has become a prominent issue amongst the working class, specifically those employed in low-income jobs such as fast food services. The purpose of this four-year-long fight is to raise the current minimum wage to a living wage of $15. While reading Barbra Ehrenreich’s essay, Serving in Florida, although written in 2001, its themes of economic inequality and oppression of underpaid workers continue to be relevant nearly 15 years later. Despite the age gap between Serving in Florida and the protest Fight for $15, the issue of overwhelming poverty amidst hard-working Americans remains prevalent today. In March of this year, the Boston Globe released an article by Katie Johnson, regarding the origins and purpose of the movement, Fight for $15. In September of 2012 in New York City, a few hundred fast food employees met to organize a strike for fair labor wages and union rights. During this time, the minimum wage in New York City was $7.25 (“History of the Hourly Minimum Wage in New York State - New York State Department of Labor”), while the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment was $2, 480 (“Average Rent in New …show more content…

At first, she only works one job at Hearthside, but she still lacks the funds to pay for her expenses, so to compensate, Ehrenreich decides to get another job at, Jerry’s. Despite having two jobs, Barbara is forced to restore to fast food, as she cannot waste her money on kitchen materials and fresh vegetables. Besides herself, she describes the living situation of her eight other coworkers. All of which constantly struggle to afford a decent home, one lives in a trailer, another pays profuse hotel rates, while others live in crowded apartments. At the end of the story, Ehrenreich quits her job at Hearthside, because maintaining two jobs proved to be too

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Summary Of Serving In Florida By Barbara Ehrenreich

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Make a copy of this document and put in your AP Lang folder: After reading Serving in Florida by Barbara Ehrenreich, answer the following questions and submit into the Schoology Submission box before 7:30am on Tuesday January 17th. NO NEED TO PRINT YOUR RESPONSES. 1) Do you think Ehrenreich’s forays into the world of poverty were ethical? Ehrenreich’s methods of experiencing poverty were definitely ethical. She simply applied for certain jobs, worked at those jobs, and then provided a narrative that described her overall working experience.

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Serving In Florida By Barbara Ehrenreich: Chapter Analysis

1264 Words | 6 Pages

By her explaining what it is like for them living it paints a picture into their lives so you can get a better idea of how bad it actually is. When you can see this it is easier to make an emotional attachment to the story and those in the story. Nobody likes stress or exhaustion, she pulls in a lot of the audiences’ emotional attachment with this next quote, “But for me it’s a crash course in exhaustion management.” (Ehreneich, 137) After Barbara has to pick up a second job to make ends meet she struggles making it mentally and physically with how tired she is. This can create a lot of emotional attachment to those who have been in her position before or are currently in her position.

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Chapter Summary Of Minimum Wage By Barbara Ehrenreich

551 Words | 3 Pages

Barbara Ehrenreich wonders how americans can afford to survive financially off of just a minimum wage paying job. Ehrenreich decides to go undercover to find out for herself how these americans are barely making ends meat. The first place Ehrenreich goes to is Key West, Florida; she gets a job at a diner and finds a trailer home to live in but soon realizes that working at the diner alone cannot pay for her rent and put food on the table so Ehrenreich gets a second job working as a hotel maid. Soon the fatigue of working two strenuous jobs catches up to her and she decides to quit her two jobs before her first month of being undercover is up. The second city she visits is Portland, Maine.

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“Some who had been successful found themselves unemployed with no benefits (Stephens and Wikstrom 164). Another issue was the fact that while some people were able to maintain their lifestyle up to that point, the minimum wage which was at that time, $5.15 per hour had not been increased between 1997 and 2005. This did not help the low-income families as during this period “…consumer prices have increased between 19 and 20 percent, meaning purchasing power of the dollar received by minimum wage workers has declines significantly” (164). One final issue that helped to turn the success of the Work to Welfare program was the fact that increases in regressive tax and sales tax, as well as state and federal government fees “fell heavily on those at the bottom of the income scale.”

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In the book of Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich presents to readers an overall perspective on how the unskilled women to be forced to join the labor market after the American welfare reform on 1998. Interestingly, this presentation is actually based on Ehrenreich’s practical experiences. She participates into the lifestyle of the poor in the low-wage labor market in order to experiences and researches that living style as an “undercover journalist”. Moreover, Ehrenreich wants to find an answer for the question if she could survive and maintain her living with low wage just like the way “four million women about to be booted into the labor market by welfare reform going to make it on $6 or$7 an hour” (Nickel and Dimed, pg.1). In fact, three

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Summary Of Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel And Dimed

652 Words | 3 Pages

As a reader reads Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed on (Not) Getting by in America, they get an insight on what it is like to live a low income life. Ehrenreich proposes the argument in the introduction that poverty is a serious matter and just because one has a job does not mean they are not considered poor. She wants to persuade us to realize that American is not the land of opportunity as promised and portrayed and there are regular people who are struggling to live a comfortable life. Throughout her book she mentions her experiences with living on minimum wage, the hiring process, and how she felt being put in that position. After reading Ehrenreich’s book I am thoroughly persuaded.

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Nickel and Dimed On (Not) Getting By in America, is the factual narrative of Barbara Ehrenreich’s venture to completely immerse herself in the life of a minimum wage worker. Through her experiment Ehrenreich set out to prove that the average worker can’t “make it on $6 or $7 an hour (1)” in this country; and with her hands on research, she defends while simultaneously proving that the reason so many people are stuck in the lower end of the economy is not because they are lazy or unskilled, but because the jobs they can acquire rarely pay enough to surpass the annual poverty levels. Ehrenreich's use of statistics, examples and the general tone she phrases her rhetorical questions with enlightens her audience of just how hard it is to get by

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Similarities Between 30 Days And Serving In Florida

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Minimum wage is a topic that controls many individual’s lives in today’s society. Many individuals believe minimum wage should be raised to help families get out of poverty. In the documentary, 30 Days, two individuals set out to live in the poverty world. They left everything they owned at home and moved across America to start out fresh. Similar to 30 Days, the individual in “Serving in Florida” moved to Florida to try to experience poverty alone.

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Argumentative Essay On Nickel And Dimed

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Serving In Florida Summary

1336 Words | 6 Pages

At her job, she always as to be occupied with a task, even though her manager does nothing all day. Conditions for the employees are unfair. Their break room is disgusting and it is reminded to them that it is a privilege, as well as their lockers can be searched anytime, they’re not allowed to gossip, and new and possibly current employees will be tested for drugs. Ehrenreich has trouble keeping up with her payments with the wages she is earning and can not imagine how her coworkers are able to live like this, however she later learns that they are also barely making it by. She decides she will need to gain a second job and becomes a waitress for another restaurant, Jerry’s(not its actual name).

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552 Words | 3 Pages

Ehrenreich uses imagery, diction, pathos and logos to strategize her story and make it more appealing to the readers who are higher income people wanting them to understand how difficult low income life can be. Ehrenreich thoroughly illustrates her experience at the Hearthside using a metaphor. “Picture a fat person's hell, and i don't mean a place with no food. Instead there is everything you might eat if eating had no bodily consequences….The kitchen is a cavern, a stomach leading to the lower intestine that is the garbage and dishwashing area.”

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