Getting By (Or Not) In America

Gabriel Avritscher

Mr. Roddy

IHSS

29 September 2019

Nickel And Dimed: On Not Getting By In America

One interesting Sociological study was Barbara Ehrenreich's 1998 study of how low-wage workers survive financially as well as literally in modern America. She conducted it differently, however, by actually taking on those jobs for extended periods of time. At that time, the prevailing minimum wage was $5.15, which for reference is two dollars and ten cents less than it is today. In addition, around 30% of the workforce made less than $8 an hour back then. Today, around 40% of the workforce makes less than $15 an hour. 
Anyways, back to the study. In her study, Ehrenreich pretty much washed out of each of the three different locations that she tried, all in different parts of the country. The jobs she held ranged from Wal-Mart to hotel maid to housekeeper, and each presented their own challenges. She also found that assistance for low-wage workers is poor at best, non-existent at worst. Ehrenreich's overall conclusion was that she pretty much didn't know how people managed to scrape a living from the money and working conditions which they had to endure. She also concluded that the system pretty much was made to work against them, and that managers/supervisors willingly contribute to that, presumably to keep the workers in check. 
To be honest, I really don't think much has changed since, especially considering that this was only twenty years ago. Although minimum wage has gone up, as well as overall wage in general (as I sort of implied in the first paragraph), that doesn't ultimately change the situation. If anything, things have gotten worse. Due to inflation, the $5.15 minimum wage back then is equal to about $7.93 in 2017, a number which can only have gone up since then. And unless Andrew Yang somehow wins the Presidency, I don't really see the overall situation for those low-wage workers improving. 
However, one thing that I find interesting is that the article didn't mention immigrants at all. Many immigrants, legal or illegal, are the ones who take up these low-wage jobs that most Americans aren't willing to take, or at least don't have to. I'm curious as to why the topic of immigrants as a whole are excluded from the study's findings, and I can't really think of a reason why. I think it would be interesting to see if the workers' perspective on their economic and working conditions differ between immigrants and natives. 


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