Instructions: Answer these questions in your journal. Follow along with the “Schedule of Reading Assignments” in your syllabus and have the questions completed for the week in which they are assigned (if applicable); otherwise answer these questions after you have finished reading the book.
General Question
These questions should be answered in your journal after
you have finished reading the book.
1. In the wake of recent
welfare reform measures, millions of women entering the workforce can expect to
face struggles like the ones Ehrenreich confronted in Nickel and Dimed.
Have you ever been homeless, unemployed, without health insurance, or held down
two jobs? What is the lowest-paying job you ever held and what kind of help --
if any -- did you need to improve your situation?
2. Were your perceptions of blue-collar Americans transformed or reinforced by
Nickel and Dimed? Have your notions of poverty and prosperity changed
since reading the book? What about your own treatment of waiters, maids, and
sales-people?
3. How do booming national and international chains -- restaurants, hotels,
retail outlets, cleaning services, and elder-care facilities -- affect the
treatment and aspirations of low-wage workers? Consider how market competition
and the push for profits drive the nickel-and-diming of America's lowest-paid.
4. Housing costs pose the greatest obstacle for low-wage workers. Why does our
society seem to resist rectifying this situation? Do you believe that there are
realistic solutions to the lack of affordable housing?
5. While working for The Maids, Ehrenreich hears Ted claim that he's "not a bad
guy . . . and cares a lot about his girls." How do the assumptions of
supervisors such as Ted affect their employees? How does Ted compare to
Ehrenreich's other bosses? To yours?
6. Ehrenreich is white and middle class. She asserts that her experience would
have been radically different had she been a person of color or a single parent.
Do you think discrimination shaped Ehrenreich's story? In what ways?
7. Ehrenreich found that she could not survive on $7.00 per hour -- not if she
wanted to live indoors. Consider how her experiment would have played out in
your community: limiting yourself to $7.00 per hour earnings, create a
hypothetical monthly budget for your part of the country.
8. Ehrenreich experienced remarkable goodwill, generosity, and solidarity among her colleagues. Does this surprise you? How do you think your own colleagues measure up?
9. Why do you think
low-wage workers are reluctant to form labor organizations as Ehrenreich
discovered at Wal-Mart? How do you think employees should lobby to improve
working conditions?
10. Many campus and advocacy groups are currently involved in struggles for a
"living wage." How do you think a living wage should be calculated?
11. Were you surprised by the casual reactions of Ehrenreich's coworkers when
she revealed herself as an undercover writer? Were you surprised that she wasn't
suspected of being "different" or out-of-place despite her graduate-level
education and usually comfortable lifestyle?
12. How does managers' scrutiny -- "time theft" crackdowns and drug testing --
affect workers' morale? How can American companies make the workplace
environment safe and efficient without treating employees like suspected
criminals?
13. Ehrenreich concluded that had her working life been spent in a Wal-Mart --
like environment, she would have emerged a different person -- meaner, pettier,
"Barb" instead of "Barbara." How would your personality change if you were
placed in working conditions very different from the ones you are in now?
14. The workers in Nickel and Dimed receive almost no benefits -- no
overtime pay, no retirement funds, and no health insurance. Is this fair? Do you
think an increase in salary would redress the lack of benefits, or is this a
completely separate problem?
15. Many of Ehrenreich's colleagues relied heavily on family -- for housing and
help with child-care, by sharing appliances and dividing up the cooking,
shopping, and cleaning. Do you think Americans make excessive demands on the
family unit rather than calling for the government to help those in need?
16. Nickel and Dimed takes place in 1998-2000, a time of unprecedented
prosperity in America.
Do you think Ehrenreich's experience would be different in today's economy? How
so?
17. After reading Nickel and Dimed, do you think that having a job -- any
job -- is better than no job at all? Did this book make you feel angry? Better
informed? Relieved that someone has finally described your experience?
Galvanized to do something?
Last Updated 21 August 2008 by Derek Sutton
Original reading guide located at: http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/nickel_and_dimed_reading_group_guide.htm