Have you ever wondered what it’s like to experience life as a working-class American, barely getting by on minimum wage? This was an assignment the late journalist Barbara Ehrenreich took up in the late 1990s. Her work culminated in the book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.
To learn about the plight of the working poor, Ehrenreich gave up the luxuries of her middle-class existence to experience life as an American trying to get by on a low-wage job. She took work in Key West, Florida, Portland, Maine, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. In each city, she had to subsist on whatever her income could afford. That often meant living in pay-by-the-week motels and eating highly processed food.
Finding work was a job in and of itself. She eventually found work as a waitress, a maid, a nursing home assistant, and an associate at Wal-Mart. Her research only came to an end when she was unable to secure housing in Minneapolis. As she astutely noted in the book:
“For each day that I fail to find cheaper quarters…I am spending $49.95 for the privilege of putting clothes away at Wal-Mart.” (185)
Even though Nickel and Dimed was written more than two decades ago, it reads as if it’s a present-day reflection on the state of work. A footnote on page 16 highlights that the wage for tipped employees back then was $2.13. In 2024, that wage has remained unchanged.
Ehrenreich’s lived experience shows that while wages were certainly an issue back then, it wasn’t just the paltry wages — it was the relationship between wages and housing. As Ehrenreich writes:
“When the rich and the poor compete for housing on the open market, the poor don’t stand a chance.” (202)
In the two decades since Ehrenreich published Nickel and Dimed, nothing has changed. In fact, things have gotten worse. Instead of merely working for poverty wages at Wal-Mart, American workers have been lured into financing a costly education through unsecured student loans. This has rendered millions of American workers financially insolvent, dependent on corporate employers for their livelihoods.
This essay is going to analyze the state of work today as it relates to the state of work Ehrenreich experienced in the late 1990s. It will reveal that American workers are no longer merely wage slaves — they’re debt slaves. The pathway to better job opportunities — a college education — has actually left workers worse off than they realize.
Housing Is Still a Problem 20 Years Later
Open up your media outlet of choice and you’re bound to find a headline like this:
While this might seem hyperbolic, it’s a reflection of what’s really happening on Main Street. Unaffordable housing continues to plague American households. Many Americans have adapted by getting creative: adult children live with their parents, strangers cohabitate, and the most adventurous convert vehicles into dwellings.
I jumped on the vanlife trend back in 2021, but even that was too expensive. I opted to live in a 2014 Subaru Outback instead of a converted Sprinter van. Only now am I starting to come to terms with the reality that my choice may have been a reflection of the state of housing — glamorized by a slew of Instagram influencers — rather than a rational desire to live in a vehicle.
While Millennials have only recently discovered vanlife, it isn’t actually new. Ehrenreich reveals it’s one of the ways hourly workers got by working low-wage jobs. While working at a restaurant in Key West, Ehrenreich observed:
“Joan, who had fooled me with her numerous and tasteful outfits…lives in a van parked behind a shopping center at night and showers in Tina’s motel room. The clothes are from thrift shops.” (26)
The working poor discovered years ago what Millennial and Gen Z professionals are only discovering now: housing is unaffordable and the only way around it is to adapt. While advocates call for more affordable housing, the reality is there’s no incentive to build it. It’s never going to come.
Real estate is finite. You can’t create more of it. In high-demand areas, real estate goes for top dollar. Investors and developers have an incentive to earn the maximum return on their investment — not to build affordable housing. This is why you see an abundance of half-vacant luxury apartment complexes and a dearth of affordable homes.
But that’s not the only problem. The real problem comes down to competition. Salaried workers without large cash reserves or padded balance sheets are now competing with the likes of Blackstone to purchase homes. According to one estimate, institutional investors on Wall Street are projected to own 40% of single-family homes by 2030.
The types of homes needed to house workers aren’t being built while the homes that are available aren’t accessible. If it feels like workers are playing a real-life game of Monopoly, that’s because they are. You can pass Go and collect $200 all day long, but if the board is already bought up, there’s nothing you can do about it.
Housing isn’t going to be solved anytime soon. In fact, it’s likely to only get more expensive.
What today’s vanlife trend reveals is that the housing crisis has now reached the professional working class. What was once relegated to the hourly poor is now something that is being embraced by educated white-collar workers. The housing problem hasn’t changed, just the faces of those experiencing it.
One Job Wasn’t Enough Then, and It Still Isn’t Enough Now
Thanks to the housing problem, it’s impossible to get by working just one job. You need to work multiple jobs — or combine incomes — to get by.
This, too, hasn’t changed since Nickel and Dimed was published 20 years ago. As Ehrenreich concludes from her own experience:
“Two jobs, or at least a job and a half, would be a necessity [in Key West]. In Portland, Maine, I came close to achieving a decent fit between income and expenses, but only because I worked seven days a week. Between my two jobs, I was earning approximately $300 a week after taxes and paying $480 a month in rent.” (197)
Her research comes to an abrupt end when she is unable to find affordable housing in Minneapolis. The pay-by-the-week motels ate away at her cash reserves. She may have been able to find an apartment, but thanks to her unpredictable schedule at Wal-Mart, she was unable to secure a second job that would have been necessary to ensure she had enough to make rent.
Wages have failed to keep up with gains in productivity over the past few decades. That is well-documented and shouldn’t come as a surprise. The problem is the purchasing power of those wages has also declined. While wages have dropped, the cost of living has risen, and inflation has depreciated the value of a dollar.
Today’s workers are expected to do more with less. The math, however, doesn’t math. The solution is the same as it was when Ehrenreich conducted her research: work more.
And Americans are. According to a survey conducted by Bankrate, 39% of Americans have a side hustle and 44% of Americans believe they’ll need one indefinitely to get by.
Side hustling — much like vanlife — has been glamorized on social media. The idea of working more has been all but normalized. In the process, it’s obfuscated the very real structural problems in our economy. One job wasn’t enough back then and it still isn’t enough now. Whether you’re an hourly worker at McDonald’s or a recent college grad at Deloitte, you need more than one stream of income to get by.
This stark reality begs an interesting question about the state of work altogether: is social mobility even possible or is it just an illusion? What’s the point of going into debt to obtain a college education if the job that comes on the other side of that education still isn’t enough to get by?
Are white collar workers actually better off than those barely getting by on minimum wage or are they merely the upper echelon of the working poor?
Final Takeaway
Nickel and Dimed was written more than two decades ago. Instead of things getting better, things have gotten worse — much worse.
Throughout the book, Ehrenreich notes her own privilege as an educated career woman who’s part of the “newspaper-reading professional middle class.” Unbeknownst to her, it’s this class that has been affected the most by economic decay.
While the working poor she embedded herself with years ago are still struggling, they’ve adapted. They aren’t taking to social media to complain about their lot in life like today’s newly minted young professionals:
The working poor continue to ensure that store shelves are stocked and our stomachs are constantly full.
The social contract that we all take for granted — the belief that social mobility is possible for those who work hard — has come undone. Ehrenreich couldn’t rent an apartment on a minimum wage income, much less own a home with a white picket fence and raise 2.4 children. Now that isn’t even possible for dual-income households with advanced degrees.
Why have things gotten worse? Out-of-control housing and flat-lined wages are easy to blame. But while those are certainly problems, they aren’t the reason why things have gotten worse.
You can thank debt for that.
For the vast majority of Americans, it’s no longer feasible to cover essential living expenses through earned income alone. Whether it’s credit cards or payday loans, today’s workers get by on debt.
Student debt is, of course, the elephant in the room. The thing that was supposed to ensure upward mobility has now created a new class of debt slaves. Combined, American graduates hold $1.77 trillion in student debt.
What was believed to be an investment toward social mobility has actually indentured workers. The only way to escape is to work more. But with only so many hours in a day to render your services in the employ of another, that option, too, has reached its precipice.
Debt isn’t just something plaguing America’s college graduates. Americans now hold $1.05 trillion in credit card debt, too. Degree or no degree, millions of Americans continue to mortgage their future — at double-digit interest rates.
The brutal reality of all of this is that debt isn’t supposed to be repaid. It’s to be managed. The ability to get by is a function of one’s ability to manage limited resources and unrealistic expectations.
That’s why things have gotten worse. Our expectations are no longer aligned with the reality we face.
The book is Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. It highlights how hard it was for low-wage workers to get by at the turn of the century — and how much harder it’s become for professional workers to get by today.
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