Nickel and DImed argument paragraph
Barbara Ehrenreich sought to prove wages for low class workers are too low for them to provide for themselves or families. She also tried to prove low wage jobs require a lot of effort that was not worth the amount of money they received per hour. In my opinion, Barbara Ehrenreich proved her two points in her story Nickel and Dimed. She showed wages were too low to provide for themselves or families and she proved the amount of effort put into the job was not worth the money they received per hour, by attempting to work several different low wage jobs herself.
Barbara Ehrenreich worked different low wage jobs during her story Nickel and Dimed. She tried living off of the money she acquired working the low wage jobs, but had an account of money for emergencies. She could not afford all together a place to live, food and other necessities she needed to provide for herself. Barbara Ehrenreich had to dip into her emergency fund more than one time to support herself. By having to dip into her emergency fund proves her point even more. Real low wage workers do not have money to fall back on.
It is outrageous that the wages are not high enough to get basic necessities for one person, let alone two people or a family. She also was not the only one who could not provide for herself, in her first job at the restaurant there were several people who had to live in their car and find a place to live. This proves that wages per hour should increase because one person who works a low wage job can barely provide for themselves let alone a person trying to support for more than one person. Low wage jobs require a whole lot of effort for a little amount of money.
She proves that low-wageworkers work as hard as they can to provide for themselves and are working so hard that they are injury prone. Injuries and pain caused by the workload of the low wage occupations. She says later in the book that she starts to take ibuprofen everyday for joint pain. “I start tossing back drugstore-brand ibuprofen pills as if they were vitamin C, four before each shift, because an old mouse-related repetitive-stress injury in my upper back has come back to full-spasm strength, thanks to the tray carrying.”(p. 33)
Another example would be her co-worker Holly: Holly broke her ankle on the job, but could not stop working because she had to provide for her family, she could not afford one day off from work. Barbara proves her point because low-wageworkers have to break their backs for wages that they can barely support themselves with. In conclusion Barbara Ehrenreich proved her point; wages for low-wageworkers were too low.
She proved this by working low wage jobs, and exposing the struggles of having a low wage job. Struggles as in, not being able to support oneself let alone a small family. Also the work put into the low wage job was too intense, making the workers injury prone. She clearly proves the point that wages for low-wagworkers must be higher per hour in America. People have to be able to support themselves or their families with a place to live, food and other necessities.
