Barbara Ehrenreich: The Low-Down on Low-Wage Work

Barbara Ehrenreich, journalist and author of the bestseller “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America,” went undercover working as a waitress and hotel maid in Florida, a retail worker or “Wal-Martian” in Minnesota and a dietary aid at a nursing home and a cleaning woman in Maine. Her goal: to see whether she could “match income to expenses as the truly poor do every day.” She found out she couldn’t without working two jobs. We asked her what else she found out. Here are excerpts from a recent Q&A .

Q You have said that America’s working poor are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. What do you mean by that?

I think they give much more than they get. They are giving up time spent with their families and children to make other peoples lives more convenient—cleaning your house and offices, serving your food. There is a tendency to think of the poor as lazy parasites. If anything, it’s the other way around. I am not saying they are willing philanthropists. They are involuntary philanthropists.

Q Besides the pay, what were the drawbacks of your low-wage jobs?

They all required a lot of work. I expected to work hard physically and was not disappointed. But I was surprised at what I had to learn, the amount of concentration and focus required. I had quite a comeuppance being a new person in jobs that are considered low skill that I was required to master. I no longer say “unskilled” when referring to those jobs.

What I learned was shocking to me. From the first day, I was told at one job that the boss could search my purse at any time. I said, “this cannot be true,” to a union friend and he said it was. That was lesson one. The requirement of blood testing is also an invasion of privacy—what function does this serve—marijuana is the only drug that stays in the blood for about a month.

The personality tests I took on five occasions were stupid and insulting, and there were absurd rules like not talking to fellow employees for anything other than work-related business. You could be chastised for asking someone, “how was your weekend?” All these rules make it so much harder to organize. If you cannot carry union literature in your purse and you cannot jaw with fellow employers, how are you ever going to organize?

Q None of your workplaces was unionized. How do you think that unions would have made a difference?

Almost any union might have meant higher wages—union women make 30 percent more—you would have more control over your hours of work. I could not believe that you could walk in and find out that you were on a different shift. My understanding is that that would not happen at the union workplace. An energetic union would take on the invasions of privacy—not to mention affordable health insurance.

Q Did anybody “discover” that you were a writer on assignment and not just trying to get by?

Not until I told them.. When I did tell people I was a writer, they weren’t very impressed. When I had a book-signing in Key West, a woman showed up who had worked at Jerry’s (restaurant) and I didn’t recognize her. She said, “I saw you when you came for an interview and I said to myself, ‘she was hiding something’” I asked what she thought I was hiding and she said “I thought maybe you were just out of jail or a homeless shelter.” And I thought, “Oh I need a makeover.” Low-wage workers are smart, well-groomed and funny in most instances.

Q You will be speaking to the Working for America Institute’s conference. What message do you have for union people?

One word: Organize! The most depressing interaction I had with fellow workers—people are always bitching if no manager is in hearing distance—I would say, “Did you ever think of having a union?” And they would answer: “What exactly is a union?” That took my breath away.

I feel that I am who I am and what I am because of the United Mine Workers. I was always told growing up how important that was to our family when my father was a miner. That was part of my cultural tradition. In our post-industrialist culture, if employers have their way, unions will be part of the past.

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