Posted on 09/10/2001 10:44:27 AM PDT by NorCoGOP
HOUSTON -- Many people have worked minimum wage jobs, but few have actually gone out specifically to get one. That is precisely what author Barbara Ehrenreich set out to do one her two-year study of minimum wage work.
Her findings can be found in her new book entitled "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America." Over the two years, she worked many "unskilled" labor jobs and stayed in the cheapest lodgings possible to see if a person can really live on a minimum wage salary.
Ehrenreich read from her book and took questions from an audience last night at Houston's Brazos Bookstore.
"A lot of this book is about the work. It is about the day-to-day experience," Ehrenreich said. "Like trying to find a place to live, trying to find a job and trying to master the job so you won't get fired."
In the two years she put herself through these experiences, Ehrenreich moved from city to city seeing if any one city was better than any other.
"I didn't go to places like San Francisco because I thought the prices for housing would be too high," she said. "What surprised me was that the price for housing was still too high in less glamorous cities like [Minneapolis and St. Louis, Mo.]. That came as a shock."
To survive, Ehrenreich held many different jobs from waitress to cleaning woman, even enduring a stint as a Wal-Mart sales clerk.
"I will never refer to any job as 'unskilled labor' anymore," she said. "Every job, especially the minimum wage jobs, requires skill. In fact, the minimum skill jobs were some of the hardest jobs I have ever had."
The hardest position Ehrenreich had was easily that of a maid.
"This was by far the most physically punishing job that I took part in," she said. "I never even knew jobs like these existed, but I signed up for one when I found it."
The maid service she worked for had her do everything from cleaning windows to scrubbing the floor on her hands and knees. The job would not even allow the drinking of fluids while in a house.
"I am not a stranger to sweat in large quantities," Ehrenreich said. "But at least I would always be able to replenish -- with water afterwards."
What Ehrenreich really discovered in her journey through the "lower-class" world was that everything is not as easy as society makes it seem.
"I grew up on blue-collar ethics," she said. "You work hard, work hard, work hard and you would be OK. But I was working harder than I had ever worked in my life and I saw that I was getting nowhere at all."
Working in the minimum-wage world exposed Ehrenreich to many things that truly shocked her, including co-workers who did not have homes and those who did not eat enough.
"My middle-class mentality told me that when I see someone eating a bag of chips for lunch, or just skipping lunch completely, they were just on a diet," she said. "Later I realized that the reason they didn't eat lunch was that they couldn't afford it. To the people I was working with, a pizza would be considered a luxury because they simply didn't have the money to afford it."
To Ehrenreich, this was not right. The conditions she saw were truly appalling to her, she said.
"We are really not only in an economic crisis, but a moral crisis," she said. "Statistics that were taken by the 2000 census show that 29 percent of Americans are not making enough money to support themselves."
She said that the best thing anyone can do is get involved at a grassroots level.
"The subjects of poverty and wealth have gotten off the agenda of politicians," Ehrenreich said. "We need to get them back. We need to get involved in activist groups that are trying to do something with these issues, and we can't be in denial in of the existence of poverty. We need to fix this."
WOW, ET, now you're starting to understand what we "evil rich" people complain about: the more we try to get ahead financially, the more the Greedy Hand steals from us.
My husband did just that. In the past 3 years, he has more than doubled his income. He's currently planning his next career move. This from a man who barely graduated high school and never attended college. He did it through sheer hard work and diligence. It can be done.
FP
If we're so concerned that people can't live on a minimum wage, when will we decide that someone is earning more than they need and start capping the maximum amount that a person can earn?
Minimum wage is for starting out, to get experience or to pay for dates. It is not for providing for families -- that's what careers are for.
-PJ
My idea of a maximum wage is gaining all the experience, skills, and connections necessary to maximize your earning potential - then, the sky is the limit.
I have tripled my income since 1993, following a rather rigid plan of strategic skills to acquire, and moves to other companies to be adequately be compensated for new skills.
As for having the right "academic" background - its all based on market; not that one job is better than another. Most companies in the US have a market-based pay program. They pay according to supply and demand within that skill set. The market values an Electrical Engineering degree more than an English degree. I can't help that.
The simple answer is desire.
Your ignorance is showing. There are plenty of options for a well balanced meal. Look at the price of hamburger and chicken, both about a buck a pound, enough to give you several days worth of protein. Consider eggs, cheese. And several daily servings of fruit shouldn't cost more than a few bucks per week. Look in the frozen foods for a smorgasbord of vegetables for about a buck a bag, enough to last several meals. Don't blame me for your nutritional ignorance, or expect me to transfer money to you because you don't feel like working a few extra hours, or because you prefer convenience food, cigarettes, or cable TV.
Starches convert to sugar in the body at a much faster rate and the sugar that doesn't get used turns to FAT.
This sounds like the ignorant rationalizing of the obese. Perhaps you should know that people who are overweight don't get ahead as readily? Try eating less. It saves money.
And I have worked saturdays and sundays too. I recall one stretch where I worked 100 days and decided I was calling in sick. I NEEDED SLEEP!
Take responsibility for yourself, and don't blame your job for the fact that you lack the discipline to put your head to a pillow instead of pursuing other pleasures. Even if you worked 12 hours per day, there is time for sleep (and you would have grossed nearly $2000 per month.)
And the problem with working over time is that it put you in a higher tax bracket, thus more taxes are taken out, and guess what? You actually end up taking home less pay than if you had not worked the overtime in the first place! FACT!
Absolute malarkey. The extra money you earn might be taxed at a higher rate than the other earnings, but the rate applies only to the extra. You net less per hour for the extra hours, but still keep your net for the original hours. It sounds like you have never actually filled out an income tax return. There is NO means for ending up with less net pay as a result of more work, unless by some withholding issue that will result in a refund in the end.
Can you please email me your address? Thank you.
The other shoe never dropped.
The silence was deafening when it came to how to solve the "problem" that she "discovered".
I bet lunch that it is a variant of taking money from those who earn it (by guys in black with guns if necesary) and giving it to those who through indiference, neglect or the focus on instant gratification, prevented them from developing any skills worth more than minimum wage.
Enduring? Huh? I worked for several years as a sales clerk. Admittedly, not at Wal*Mart, but the same job at a similar retailer. The work could be hard and certainly wasn't intellectually stimulating, but it was good, honest work serving paying customers. Is serving others now beneath us?
The maid service she worked for had her do everything from cleaning windows to scrubbing the floor on her hands and knees
Yup. That's how it's done at my house, too. By me. Tell me, is cleaning windows and scrubbing the floor on hands and knees now considered too hard of work for the pampered American worker? Apparently I missed something. Oh all-powerful government, please come and save me from this terrible slavery called house work! Ooooooh, maybe that's the key, it's WORK.
FP
Having been a McHell slave I can tell you that all jokes about their employees are true. Obviously they don't apply to every single person that's flipped a burger, only about 98% of them ;). I once had a coworker I needed to instruct on how to "dress" (McD speak for "put together") Fillet-o-Fish EVERYDAY. This is the easiest sandwich at McD's: crown - tartar sauce - fish - half slice of cheese - heel; and she couldn't remember it for 24 hours. There's some pretty dumb people making your fastfood.
As for Walmart employees I don't know, their glassy eyed stares scare me, I don't talk to them.
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