Wage Jobs In Nickel And Dimed By Barbara Ehrenreich

2.8 million full-time workers were below the poverty line in 2005 (Baca Zinn, 2009, p. 194). Poverty is a true reality for both those who cannot work, but surprisingly also the working class. It is inevitable if you cannot work for wages it will be very difficult to earn enough to live. Frankly, this is true for the working class as well. Full time employees of minimum wage jobs can still struggle to stay above the poverty line. Matter of fact, the majority of the working poor is white, female, and high school educated (Baca Zinn, 2009, p.194). Nickel and Dimed, author, Barbra Ehrenreich, decided to investigate minimum wage jobs in order to see if it is really possible to live comfortably by working minimum wage jobs. Ehrencreich is a journalist

There is a startling 17.6% of youth under 18 in poverty (Baca Zinn, 2009, p. 195). The younger the child is the greater the probability of living in poverty is for them. Children in working poor households tend to have their parents more absent from their life. Working poor parents have to make ends meet, even if that means working day and night. This is an even more prominent problem for single parents because this means they need to find another source of childcare. The cost of childcare is tremendous. Children whose parents are absent from their life are more at-risk to being in poverty themselves or seeking other means such as gangs. Children who grow up in poverty also have a disadvantage in opportunities. People who are poor have to live in low-income housing areas. The educational systems in impoverished areas are not a sufficient source of education for the children. The lack of quality schooling can further lead these children into poverty when they have their own households. Often time’s children will have to work in order to provide for himself or herself or the family. Rosalie, one of Ehrenreich’s co-workers at the maid company has a testimony that exemplifies the hard work children in poverty have to go through. Rosalie had to work many long hours picking blueberries, which was so physically demanding that now she is in severe shoulder pain (Ehrenreich, 2001, p. 89).

For example Ehrenreich was in need for food and called many local places for food stamps or food donations. The people she spoke to while on the phone were awfully rude (Ehrenreich, 2001, p. 102). The people she spoke with discriminated her because they assumed she had done something irresponsible in order to get in the situation she was in. Another example of this discrimination is how Ehrenreich was not allowed to be by her own purse during a drug test (Ehrenreich, 2001, p. 135). I know that was because some people do cheat on drug test, but that stereotype was reflected on her just because of her social status. If a high-class person had to take the same drug test, the nurse would have allowed them to be by their purse. People who work for minimum wage jobs are discriminated by both gender and situational just because they are viewed as less of a human because of their