Minimum wage in America remains a common topic of discussion throughout the country, mainly because its gradual increase over the years sparks the argument: should pay for blue-collar jobs reach an amount resembling that of a normal career’s? Nickel and Dimed actively investigates that question by seeing if minimum wage in today’s modern world can suitably satisfy all of an individual’s living needs. Ehrenreich targets the working-class and owning-class citizens alike as her book’s audience, but it is certainly the owning-class people who claim that a minimum wage is an acceptable living wage that she aims to persuade otherwise. She occasionally cheats in order to maintain a basic semblance of security throughout her experiences; and had she be willing to explore those kinds of usual difficulties that the working-class unwillingly have to face, it would have supported her case by exposing the absolute worst of the worst of a life hanging onto existence by meager pay. Despite the particular …show more content…
To counter these “cheats”, and enrich the experiment, Ehrenreich should have added more first-hand testimonies about these unconventional situations from people who had to experience the same setbacks the hard way: for example, from Caroline, a woman who had to experience the subject of Ehrenreich’s experiment in an actual period of her life with plenty more unfavorable variables, or her coworkers—like Holly, a fellow maid. Despite Holly’s severe ankle injury, she insists on persevering through the pain because she cannot afford to miss a day of work, the disparity of the blue-collar employee clearly emphasized when Ehrenreich writes, “…because [Holly’s] going to keep going until you pry the last cleaning rag from her cold, dead hands…”