Nickel and Dimed Book Review

Thomas Randall, Allison Young, Emily Coon, Reilly Johnson

10/27/11

            Barbara Ehrenreich, a journalist, undergoes a social and economic experiment to evaluate the conditions and life styles of low wage workers around various locations in the United States. She goes under-cover as a low wage worker herself in order to gain information and inform her audience about how employees survive on low wage salaries. By the end of the book, Ehrenreich’s purpose extends to increasing awareness on the low wage work force and the rights they deserve. This started off as an assignment for her job, but turned into a personal challenge to survive.

            Ehrenreich’s book is primarily directed toward middle or upper-class working adults who are unaware of the conditions of low wage workers. It is apparent that this is her intended audience because she uses common jargon and colloquial terms so the majority of her audience can understand it. This audience is appealed to by Ehrenreich’s conversational tone and her authentic portrayal of her thoughts.

            She does a good job giving information to the audience about the logistics of low wage workers. It is clear and easy to understand and she also provides a good balance of personal experience and general trends so that it isn’t solely an opinion piece. She includes qualitative and quantitative observations that provide more information and a clear image. The clarity aided her in revealing information which was her original goal; to express the conditions of low wage workers.

            Although informative and eye opening, Ehrenreich’s disrespectful attitude and stereotyping distracted from the overall issue of the low wage workers conditions. She provided a clear depiction of the lower-class lifestyle but included unnecessary and rude comments along the way. These comments make the reader less compelled to empathize with her.

            We would recommend this book to working adults over teenagers and low wage workers. It will be informative and eye opening to working adults who haven’t been exposed to this kind of lifestyle.