Diana D. reviewed on 10/21/2009

Helpful Score: 1

"Nickel and Dimed:..." is an excellent book describing how difficult it is to survive on minimum wage in this country. Not only does this author describe how difficult this was to do physically, the readers also get a sense of the emotional toll this experiment took on her. In a nutshell, the author got an assignment to go undercover as a minimum wage worker so she could truly get an idea of this lifestyle. She took jobs such as: maid, waitress and sales clerk. What ensues are descriptions of heartbreaking stories of her co-workers who either had to live with many roommates or even live in their vehicles. And these are people with jobs! Can you imagine how impossible it is to survive without a job. The author describes the desperation her co-workers felt and even her own sense of defeat and desperation even knowing that this was only temporary (the experiment lasted 3 months with one month spent in 3 cities each).

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