While Ehrenreich has not impressed me in the past, I was pleasantly surprised with this book, which I found engagingly written, especially for a subject so depressing. Because it is depressing - Ehrenreich decides to try and live, for short periods, as one of the 'working poor' to try and get an idea what it is like to work a low wage job and keep a roof over your head in America. The conclusion, none too surprising, is that it is bloody hard.
Of course the author was only really visiting this world, and knew that at any time she could go back to her nice house and decent bank account. However, she does a good job of exploring the mind set that starts to develop once you are working in these situations - the desperation, the fear, the tiredness - and her political insights are good ones. Unfortunately, the situation remains, and it is not one that blights the USA alone. ( )

Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed" is an interesting, if flawed, look at how people who work at minimum wage jobs get by in America. Ehrenreich takes on a series of low paying jobs - waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing home aid and clerk at Wal-Mart, working at each job for a month while finding out if she has enough money to find a place to live and pay for rent and still have money left over for groceries. The descriptions of each job and the amount of work she does for little pay is eye-opening as is the struggle to find affordable housing. The way management (as well as the general public) treats the workers is also eye opening. The "affordable" housing that Ehrenreich finds is often a squalid hotel room with little security. And with little money left over after paying rent, meals are hard to come by, and forget about being able to afford health insurance.

The major flaw in this book is Ehrenreich herself. She's not really poor and it's hard for the reader to emphasize with her because it's clear she'll walk away after only a month in the job (often leaving her coworkers in the lurch). She also doesn't work consecutive months at a time, instead spreading the jobs over a long period of time, returning to her "real" life in between, so she never goes more than a month at a time having to live paycheck to paycheck. She never gets close to her coworkers, the true poor, which would have added real insight to how the poor really live. When Ehrenreich develops a rash, she's quick to call her own doctor and use her credit card to pay for the prescription, rather than use over the counter medicine. Towards the end, Ehrenreich seems to tire of her assignment and seems contents to live in a series of hotel rooms rather than really look for affordable housing. Her last stint at Wal-Mart seems suspicious - she turns down a higher paying job and then continually complains not only about having to take a drug test but the way management treats the workers. She complains that Wal-Mart pays so little that workers can't afford to buy clothes there, only mentioning in passing that employees get a discount. With all the media attention focused on Wal-Mart, it's hard to believe her choosing to work there was accidental.

In the end however, the book does make a difference, at least to me. I'll think twice before carelessly tossing clothes back on the rack wherever I feel like when I shop and will tip waitresses 20% if not more. ( )

This book reads as though Ehrenreich has never had to do without her entire life. The level of shock she applies to routine tasks of finding employment, housing, transportation, the degree of physical labor, etc. is appalling. Better written would have been the book describing an individual's successful struggle out of the low-income lifestyle and tips on how to 'get by' and achieve. I am confused as to how this book is supposed to be helpful and enlightening. ( )

Fascinating perspectives on the plight of those that survive living on minimum wages from one person who had the luxury of “trying it out” for a few months. Below the poverty line, mundane problems become serious challenges, and humanity is short-changed. While it’s always miserable to be poor, in any country, it is the debilitating pressures to optimize profits (for others) that underlie why the United States is a great place to be rich, and a tough one to be poor. ( )

This is basically a report of author's social experiment, working as a low wage worker. The book gives us an insightful look of how the bottom 20% live in the country. ( )