Rating: 
Summary: Missing the point?
Review: ... It was written during a time when the "dot com" boom was still booming and most Americans thought we had a very strong economy in which everyone was benefiting. Ehrenreich shows that this was not true, and that even in the best economic times many Americans are still struggling every day to get by. This is an important fact we need to keep in mind, particularly when thinking about government policy towards the poor.
Rating: 
Summary: Could have been a great book
Review: This book could have been great. I consider myself pretty liberal, and am aware of the housing, low income and high expeneses that many people have to live with in this country.
However, Barbara Ehrenreich trivializes these problems by whining about minor problems, or more serious issues that can be dealt with. For example, she is horrified at renting a room where the bathroom door must be closed because it next to the kitchen. And her Wal-Mart job, which does have some real problems, is so, well, boring. Plus, the work and the random drug tests are demeaning. Does she really think that you can gain more self respect by collecting a check from the government than by cleaning a house or being a waitress? And how could she possibly be surprised that "dietary aide" included washing dishes? What did she expect?
Another problem; two months is not really enough time to know what life is like on low wages in one city. And, when she was in Florida, she just couldn't help going home to answer e-mails, etc.
One last thing. She was extremely condescending towards all her coworkers. When her coworker in The Maids gets hurt, she feels she should say who she is, that, somehow, she can't stand by. That's fine. The problem is that she says the reason she can't stand by and watch this woman's pain is because she's educated, a Ph.D. What does that have to do with compassion or humanity?
Anyway, she clearly started this expereience with no idea of the world she was entering, and left it still not understanding it.
Rating:
Summary: Author short on real experience
Review: I truly thought this would be a thoughtful and thorough evaluation of how people try and live on minimum wage jobs. Instead it is a long rant by an obviously overprivileged writer who is offended that people actually take jobs cleaning other people's toilets. Rather than tell us HOW she gets by one low wages, she rages about the indignity of the jobs. Every day in America people go to work and bend over to load a dishwasher. For most, it's a job, not a an oppression by an Aristocratic government. The only social study going on here is how far removed someone well-educated and well-fed can be from working class society. Skip this book and read something by Studs Terkel.
Rating: 
Summary: Should Be Required Reading
Review: I really enjoyed this fast read and thought it was both informative and entertaining, even though I am well aware that "the "working poor"...are in fact the major philanthropists of our society", to quote Ehrenreich. The author may have always had her "real" life to go back to (she reminds us of the superficiality of her experiment many times) yet she still went about her job hunt with gusto, including using Food Bank and other community resources, more so than I can say I have ever done or had to.In no way did Ehrenreich ever come across as condescending or haughty to her fellow employees-I got quite the opposite impression. Her occassional caustic remarks are no different than the ones I hear in my office every day at all levels of the hierarchy. And I don't think one has to spend years on end in these jobs to get the point: many low-wage workers and even some up to $30,000 per year are struggling with the rising cost of rents as valuable land is being swallowed up by luxury apartments and townhomes. One of her other main points is that these workers are struggling to live and are working just as hard as you and I so that the more affluent can getter cheaper labor, lower prices, more service, etc. Yes, some people do make bad choices or do stupid things that keep them on the low end of the food chain, but millions of people come from circumstances beyond their control or they are simply trying to succeed against an ever-growing population who wants to do the same. If everyone did well, who would clean the toilets, hand you your burger at the drive-thru or mow your lawn? I think the author would like people to recognize this, really understand how our economy and the corporate structure ticks and the social implications it has on our society. Her final chapter "Evaluation" concisely pulls this all together and should be required reading for all CEO's. Ehrenreich's experiences are dead on: even at $10 an hour in the city I live, a person living alone will live in a sub-standard apartment with high electric bills, in a crime-addled neighborhood and if he has a car, it will be a cheap one with the minimum liability insurance. He may have cable and have enough food to eat, but after buying other necessities, a Savings account and going on a vacation is impossible. Chances are he has a half-hour lunch, a strict code of work rules and either pays heavily for health insurance or chooses none at all. This is reality. My job seems suddenly cushy after reading this and I feel like I've been struggling! I did feel sorry for the author's co-workers in her various jobs because at least they were putting in honest time under repressive regimes, no less. I am appalled at some readers' disdain for these people as if they somehow had it coming to them, yet pages of newspaper print reported the woes of Enron employees who lost their 401Ks and had to suddenly cut back on their over-extended lifestyles and people felt sorry for THEM. Something is very wrong with all this economic imbalance and Barbara Ehrenreich points some of this out.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, could have been better
Review: I have read some of the other reviews here and some of the critiques are indeed fair, but I am going to praise the author as she is covering ground that very few others bother with. Yes, I expected more from the book and it should have been more in-depth, but the author at least made the attempt to find out what it was like to be a low wage worker. It is an important book for that reason and hopefully will inspire other authors to follow her example. For what it is worth, I currently supervise low wage workers and can tell you that many of them dont know how to get out of their situations and many feel that there is no other alternatives. I face a moral dilemna at times, as I want to tell them to unionize as the author suggested to her fellow workers at Wal-Mart. In fairness to the author, she seemed geniunely remorseful that she could not finacially hold out long enough to help them form a union. This is worthwhile reading.
Rating:
Summary: A Much Needed Message
Review: All I have to say is that once you read this book, you'll never look at eating at Denny's (or any other such restaurant), shopping at Wal-Mart (Kmart or Target) or staying in any hotel quite the same way. Ehrenreich offers an unsettling look into the lives of people who occupy perhaps the lowest rung of the working class in American society, in the wake of welfare reform. In order to write the book, she thrust herself into that socio-economic strata, taking jobs as a waitress, housecleaner, and Wal-Mart salesperson to see if she could make ends meet between the needs for food and shelter, etc. on the salaries provided. If nothing else, by the end of this book, whether you agree with her conclusions or not, you will have plenty to think about. The "Book Group Discussion Questions" in the back of the book are a nice "jumping off place" for thinking further about the situations she writes about.
Rating:
Summary: Average
Review: I don't really know what I was expecting when I purchased this book (I guess I was hoping for more of a book such as "waiting"). Although I do enjoy the casualness of the author's writing style, I was left wanting more. It seemed to me that the author never stuck to a situation long enough for us to get a real feel for what she and the people around her where going through. I believe this book would have worked better if she had stuck to a job longer instead of fluttering from job to job. Although I realize that the premise of this book is to "study" the lower paying jobs, this book doesn`t deliver on a deeper level.
Rating:
Summary: Just what the title suggests...
Review: I cannot help but notice a little more closely or tip a little more generously each time I have the opportunity to come across folks working on or close to minimum wage - yes, they are everywhere - ever since I began to read this book. Yes, it will affect you and it is a good thing if it does. For it is the customer who demands 99 cent specials at fast food joints or the business which provides cut throat offerings which leads to such a dichotomy in our society today. Read this book and you will be a little more appreciative of your surroundings. But don't go about looking for the answers to the worries of life - that's something which Ms/ Ehrenreich did not set out to do... happy reading!
... and consider reading Fast Food Nation as well - a scary but well written account of the evolution of the fast food industry (I read it two years ago and have not been able to go to a BK/McDonald's since...)
Rating:
Summary: An important and penetrating work
Review: Ms. Ehrenreich's book should be required reading for all students of politcal, economic, and social theory, whether conservative, moderate, or liberal. While her views in the books are obviously liberal, the people she describes are neither liberal nor conservative. They spend too much of their time worrying about paying rent and buying food to have any time left for such esoteric matters as a living wage and anti-trust legislation. This is America, and we must be able to deal with it. Those on the left should read it to see what really needs to be and can be done by the government. Those on the right should read it to see what needs to be and can be done by business. All people, however, especially those who have opinions about glogalization, immegration, the minimum wage, unionization, and housing shortages, and basic human dignity should read it--and try to experience the lives depicted. These are real people, and this is real life. Welcome to the Great Society.
Rating: 
Summary: Good idea but disappointing
Review: I was looking forward to reading this book but was disappointed. While her idea was very interesting, I agree with many readers about her condescending attitude, both towards the poor and the wealthy. She made sure to always remind us that she was not one of "them". Halfway through the book it seemed her only agenda was to write an expose on Merry Maids and Wal Mart, and not about living on mimimum wage. Instead of being a book about how hard people struggle to successfully survive on low wages, she made it seem as if her co-workers were lost souls who had no direction or goals in life.
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