by Luci Davin

Created on: January 18, 2011

A US journalist and writer, with a good income and comfortable standard of living, Barbara Ehrenreich became a low paid worker in 3 sectors in different US cities, taking the jobs and trying to make ends meet on the wages, with the intention of writing about her experiences. This became a surprise bestseller and has been widely read in the US and other English speaking countries.

One of the dangers of a book like this is that it can appear patronising. How can someone who's only sampling life as a poor person really know what it's like in the long term? Ehrenreich is refreshingly honest in regularly asking herself that question, and acknowledging the importance to her of the times she was able to step out of this low paid drudge life.

The jobs

Waitressing in Key West, Florida, near to home. She worked in several different diners and restaurants, each with its own pros and cons. Apart from the low wages, there are often no real breaks, though the jobs vary in their intensity.

Cleaning in Maine - she worked for a maid service. Adding insult to injury in this job are the attitudes of those who the maids clean homes for to the workers, on all kinds of levels.

Wal-Mart in the Twin Cities, Minnesota - here Ehrenreich has to face drug and attitude testing as well as the pay issue.

What runs through all these stories though is not just that the work is often tedious and unpleasant, and that management have lots of ways to make life harder for the workers. There is lots of camaraderie and the author and her colleagues help each other. Ehrenreich faces all that with humour; after all she can get out.

What takes its toll on the writer is the struggle to find somewhere to live. Without a deposit and given high rents, it's impossible, on the minimum wage, to afford somewhere to live - one striking moment is finding out the rent for a trailer - being trailer park trash is an aspiration, comments Ehrenreich.

Highlights in the book are Ehrenreich's great writing and sense of humour throughout. I also liked the bits where she talks to colleagues about a union, particularly at Wal-Mart. Writing about it later, she is able to include stories of what was happening around then in other stores.

Ehrenreich also spends some time writing about management attitudes towards the workforce, and analysing corporate induction/indoctrination programmes and propaganda. This is sometimes shocking reading, especially in the Walmart section.

Another interesting part is the stories of Ehrenreich's colleagues, who of course are probably stuck in this life forever, and the challenges they face. Ehrenreich makes the point that she is not special or exceptional in any way in this world in intelligence or anything, and admits to finding this hard to get used to - she lives by her brain normally.

The weakest part of the book is the conclusion - I share her dreams of workers organising for greater justice but I can't quite believe in the optimism of the conclusion given the grimness of  what has gone before.

There are a number of similar books including British ones by Polly Toynbee and Fran Abrams, but Ehrenreich's book is better written (and in my opinion politically) and more insighful than either of these.

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