Summary Of The Minimum Wage War By Barbara Ehrenreich

The solution to the minimum-wage problem that haunts American workers in the 21st century is to strive for lower everyday expenses rather than for a higher minimum wage. The renowned author Barbara Ehrenreich, in her informational novel Nickel and Dimed, tells the story of how she performed a social experiment by working several minimum wage jobs, while living a lifestyle of a low-wage worker. In her novel, Ehrenreich concludes that minimum wage workers “in good health” can “barely support [themselves]” (199). Even though Ehrenreich earned “$1039 in one month,” at the end of the month she only had “$22 left over” as she had to spend “$517” on food and gas, and “$500” to pay her rent (197). As evident, Ehrenreich’s wage is not the cause of her

Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting by in America is a critically acclaimed investigative biography of a reporter going undercover to see how individuals manage to live on minimum wage across America. More specifically, Barbara was curious about how were “the roughly four million women about to be booted into the labor market by welfare reform going to make it on $6 or $7 an hour” (1)? Ehrenreich developed a plan and some rules for her undercover research for finding jobs, housing, and living expenses. The research for this book covered a span of three states, Florida, Maine, and Minnesota, between spring of 1998 and summer of 2000.

In the book Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America, journalist Barbara Ehrenreich goes undercover into the world of minimum wage employees to research how difficult it is to live off of their salary. She splits up the book into three sections where she tackles these jobs in diverse areas to be able to compare her data. In each section Ehrenreich plows through several jobs, sometimes struggling to afford housing and food. She takes these first-hand experiences and compiles them into a book that gives readers an insight to the world of minimum wage workers. Ehrenreich begins her journey by taking time to prepare for the hardships she may face along the way.

In this book of nonfiction based on the journalist's experiential research, Ehrenreich attempts to ascertain whether it is currently possible for an individual to live on a minimum-wage in America. Taking jobs as a waitress, a maid in a cleaning service, and a Walmart sales employee, the author summarizes and reflects on her work, her relationships with fellow workers, and her financial struggles in each situation. An experienced journalist, Ehrenreich is aware of the limitations

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

With the connections to the rhetorical appeals, she is able to present examples that people who has worked as a low waged worker can relate to. Through her experience and what she has observed from her coworkers, Ehrenreich revealed the struggles of the work environment and the living situation that resulted from the low waged

How do various wages affect the individuals of the growing population and how are they treated in society? Today, wealth is shared unequally amongst the population in America. Since America is a capitalist country, they go by having only the hardest workers earn the top 10% in America. Leaving the rest of the population surviving on minimum wage or making just enough to support their family. I plan to research on how many people are earning minimum wage today, and explore how this affects their lifestyle.

Should the Federal Minimum Wage be Increased? Have you ever thought that you wanted a raise at work but did not have reasons? In this essay you can give your boss these reasons and get more money. The minimum wage in 2012 was $7.25. The minimum wage is a large-scale reason of poverty.

The resistance to raising the minimum wage for all workers are contained in the mindset the wealthy elites. The protection of the laissez faire ordeals halts the expansion of economic equality. This disparity in the distribution of wealth will continue to be enforced under a legislation heavily dominated by industrial reasonings. In addition, socially, a population of a specified group continues to lack the same equality to those of the different individuals. This results in the rise of a corrupt system on a national level under the desire for more wealth of those certain individuals.

We find no evidence that minimum wage increases between 2003 and 2007 affected overall state poverty rates. ”(Leigh, A. (2007) Proposals to increase the minimum wage are politically popular because they are widely seen as an effective way to help the working poor. In spite of it, state and federal minimum wage increases between 2003 and 2007 had no effect on reducing the poverty rates. “Minimum wage increases have thus far provided little more than symbolic support to the working poor.”

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.

Argument Response to James Suroviecki’s “The Pay is Too Damn Low” In the New Yorker magazine on August 12, 2013, James Surovwiecki’s article “The Pay is Too Damn Low” was published. He lays out a good argument on the benefits of raising the minimum wage, but fails to address the complicated connection between low-cost goods and services that Americans have come to demand and the low minimum wage. If companies such as Wal-Mart, and McDonalds were to have to pay $15 an hour for their lowest paid employee’s, it stands to reason the added costs would be passed on to consumers. Would Americans revolt at the idea of paying nearly double for a “happy meal”, or a coffee maker?

Argumentative Text Essay In the book Nickel and Dimed, written by Barbara Ehrenreich, the author argues how challenging it is to live in a life of poverty. To prove to herself as well as others that this statement is accurate, she makes the decision to experience this lifestyle firsthand by taking low-wage jobs and recording the results. Ehrenreich took on jobs including a maid service, waitressing, and assisting the nursing home to make enough money for a place to sleep and food to eat. The work’s central argument is the fact that minimum and low wage workers face a myriad of difficulties in getting by in America; they receive very low pay, harsh treatments from their employers, and the inability to have an actual life.

Minimum wage and poverty With everything going on with the Walmart workers picketing for fifteen dollars an hour wages, the topic is widely discussed with many people taking many different sides. The essay “Raising the Minimum wage will reduce poverty” By Sharon Parrott and Jason Furman, They go into how they think the minimum wage should be raised in order to decrease poverty in america, Of course there are reasons to raise it and reasons to not raise it. Yet with the multitude of reasons for and against it, it’s hard to make a decision that makes everybody content, Some of the reasons not to raise it include, Raising it can make prices for everyday items go up, Why go and spend thousands of dollars on college when you could get a decent job right out of high school, and Why let workers who work at unskilled jobs make as much if not more than the military. Some reasons for minimum wage raising is, The fact that the cost of living is higher means people can’t survive with minimum wage without federal care, And just helping people get back on their feet when they couldn’t find a job. The reasons Minimum wage shouldn’t be raised outweigh the reasons it should.

1. Introduction In the modest term, a minimum wage is a lawfully authorized minor bound for wages, but the term “lawfully authorised” is unclear, leading too many different kinds of minimum wages institutions (Cunningham et al, 2007:19). It further states that in the most straight forward cases, such as Brazil and Bolivia, the federal government identifies a wage level and all employers in the country must pay at that level or above it (2007:19). Economist have tended to oppose minimum wage on the grounds that they reduce employment , hurting many of those they are supposed to help (the economist:24/11/2012).