Minimum Wage, Nickle and Dimed

http://www.upworthy.com/the-reality-of-who-actually-works-for-minimum-wage-will-shock-you-5?c=bl3

Check this out at Upworthy to see a pie chart showing by age and gender who's actually working for minimum wage. 

On the subject of minimum wage, I'm remembering the impact Barbara Ehrenreich's book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, had on me when it was published in 2001. Ehrenreich went undercover "to investigate the impact of the 1996 wefare reform act on the working poor in the United States. . . . "

 

". . . She concludes with the argument that all low-wage workers, recipients of government or charitable services like welfare, food, and health care, are not simply living off the generosity of others. Instead, she suggests, we live off their generosity:

When someone works for less pay than she can live on ... she has made a great sacrifice for you .... The "working poor" ... are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone. (p. 221)

The author concludes that someday, low-wage workers will rise up and demand to be treated fairly, and when that day comes everyone will be better off."  (Source:  Wikipedia)

 

Seems like a good time to read Nickled and Dimed again.