Ehrenreich describes herself as having to present a drastically stripped-down version of herself to her employers (pg 5). Her background consisted of her being divorced homemaker with three years of college education, a few housecleaning jobs and after-dinner cleanups. Her interaction with coworkers however didn’t change. (Pg 7) She stated she wore usual clothes, hairstyles, and makeup. She spoke about her children and marriage, etc. Although she did modify her vocabulary , censoring profanities, otherwise her speech didn’t change.
At this point in your reading, what is Ehrenreich’s claim or argument? Her argument seems to be that living on minimum wage isn’t a very enjoyable life. The constant ache and stress is enough to drive anyone crazy, having to pay for the rent and groceries is hard even working fulltime.
Ehrenreich conducts her experiment in the late 1990s. List 3 differences between that minimum wage worker’s world and that of today’s minimum wage worker. 1. Federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, back then it was $5.15 an