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Not Getting By in America is a good way to start the summary of this book, that is how almost one-third of all working Americans spent the late 1990s and even today, barely getting by or not getting by at all. In 1998, Ehrenreich, a journalist with a mission to help us see and respect the invisible poor, left her comfortable home in Key West and took a series of low-paying jobs in Florida, Maine, and Minnesota. She visited a world that many inhabit full-time, often for the rest of their lives. Her main objective was to simply try to match income to expenses. Ehrenreich worked as a waitress, a nursing home aide, a cleaning woman, and a Wal-Mart salesclerk. In each of the three locations, she took the highest-paying job that she could find quickly. With the exception of waitressing, where part of the income came from tips, her hourly pay always exceeded the minimum wage: In Key West, Florida, she worked two different restaurant jobs and supplemented her income with a $6.10-per-hour stint as motel housekeeper. In Portland, Maine, she became a $6.65-per-hour cleaning lady for a national maid service and also worked weekends as a $7.00-per-hour nursing-home aide. In Minneapolis, she became a salesclerk at Wal-Mart, where her hourly pay was $7.00-per-hour. A key finding: The working poor have little choice but to take more than one job at a time. She tried desperately to keep cost low, living in cheap motels at $245.00 a week in Minnesota and driving a piece of (crap) car. But even with no family to support, she couldn’t make ends meet on one paycheck. Long hours and hard labor took much of her energy and most of her intellect.
Approximate Word count = 1109
Approximate Pages = 4.4
(250 words per page double spaced)
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