Preview

Ehrenreich's Wage Failure

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
756 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Ehrenreich's Wage Failure
Every job Ehrenreich had was unskilled, but it required for the workers to learn more through their jobs. She had to learn how to manage the tools she was working with while concentrating on her work.
The three moments of glory for her were at The Maids where she finished cleaning to help out others. The other two was when she realized she could earn more at Wal Mart by keeping quiet and when she fed the Alzheimer's ward and still had time to clean.
Ehrenreich is proud of her physical ability because she, a woman in her fifties, never “collapsed or needed time off to recuperate” (Ehrenreich 195). Although her co-workers needed a break from the tough physical challenges, Ehrenreich never gave in despite her weariness.
The four traits she displayed were
…show more content…
The poor are left with homes they cannot pay and are further away from their jobs.
When food is used to calculate a family budget, it makes the price of housing to increase. Budgets were only focused on food and not housing budget.
The cities she worked at were experiencing labor shortage. The demand for workers increased and pay was declining as well.
Ehrenreich explains how the wages had been increasing since 1973. The wage in the early 2000s did not meet the amount earned back in 1973.
The workers chose not to quit their jobs because they would run into transportation issues. Even if they had a car to drive to and from work, they still had to pay for gas which took away from their salary.
Employees count on the money taboo to keep their ways of income a secret. Low wage workers benefit from this because they do not want to reveal their wage compared to others.
The National Labor Relations Act prohibits the punishment of employees who reveal their earnings.
Ehrenreich had been offended when she learned that the management could search her purse for stolen items. This invades her privacy and her human rights as an

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    not provide the wages or job satisfaction to which she had previously become accustomed. The…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The year of 1877 was when numerous strikes occurred. The strikes were led by railroad workers in dozens of cities. The reason why they were on strike was because of wage cuts. The workers already had low wages to begin with. They were also on strike because of schemes, deaths and injuries. Some worker had lost hands, feet and fingers. Some workers were even crushed in between cars. The railroad workers announced that no more trains would leave Martinsburg until the 10 percent cut was canceled. Things had started to get out of hand during the strike because a gun had gone off. The federal troops were then called and they moved the freight cars. (Document 6)…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    According to Kraut, Klinger, and Collins' article, "Choosing the High Road," in the 1980's established a significant gap between the living wage and minimum wage. Both living and minimum wages have about a two dollar difference, as oppose the pervious years, and the difference is only increasing. In 1985, minimum wage was about three dollars and the living wage was around five; this was approximately at the time of the Hormel/P-9 controversy. Not only was the alteration between both living and minimum wages increasing but this was a time of high unemployment in the Midwest.…

    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    They worked long hours with small breaks in dangerous conditions with little pay. Many people would complain, and most of these people would end up getting fired so at the time people were too scared to stand up again their bosses and demand better pay or better working conditions. This was when labor unions were formed. Labor Unions are groups of people usually working in the same field or profession that protest against their bosses together in order to try and pressure them to change their current working conditions. Additionally, they work to protect the right of laborers in America by ensuring that employers aren’t unfair towards their…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pullman Strike Thesis

    • 866 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Due to poor living conditions, workers demanded to make less into more. In Pullman’s Testimony, it says that Pullman said the economic situation of 1894 (the depression) forced him to cut wages and that he had in fact bid to make cars at a loss to keep more work. Pullman tried to use the depression as an excuse for lower wages, earnings, and hours. Yet, he kept the price of groceries, rent, and supplies up. Due to the Financial Info on Pullman’s Car Company, on July 31, 1894, Pullman was still making a surplus of $2,320,416.90, money that he could be putting into laborers’ pockets instead of his own. The Pullman Company was supposed to be taking care of their workers. Lowering wages would’ve been okay, but the fact that Pullman didn’t cut the rent, grocery bills, and other expenses made like almost…

    • 866 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    America had several problems during the urbanization of 1870 to 1920, exploitation of workers and deplorable food manufacturing conditions being a few. Due to the influx in immigrants many people needed jobs, which gave big businesses an advantage. This advantage being the exploitation of workers. Employees were paid starvation rates for long shifts of hard work. In stating this: the Triangle Shirtwaist factory, a textile making factory on an upper floor in a high building, locked its workers inside during the shift.…

    • 654 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    grew up seeing how harshly people were treated, and had her own experiences while working in…

    • 1193 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hoover's Individualism

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Farmers were crushed in debt, often forcing them to foreclose their farms. Veterans returned to the country jobless and homeless. Industrial workers were put out of work and in some cases could not afford nickel-a-night flophouses, forcing them to sleep in the streets. The group which suffered the most were the industrial workers, being put out of work which never paid enough in the first place. In 1933, one-quarter of citizens were unemployed, left with nothing to do but search for jobs. As stated by Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward, “...the men and women for whom life had changed most drastically and immediately were no longer in the factories. They were among the masses of the unemployed, and their struggle had to take another form, in another institutional context”(para. 1). The newly unemployed industrial workers often got evicted from their homes, not being able to pay rent any longer. Every day there was a new struggle to find food, shelter, and warmth in the big cities as a jobless…

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Workers were forced to work harder and with lest rest. Wages for their services were really low. The lower classes were kept on the low classes in order to supply an able workforce. There was always more people looking for jobs than there were jobs. Many women and children (as little as 10 years of age ) worked for less than men did.…

    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lower income the higher rate of extended families. People can’t afford to have their own house.…

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In order to look after her family, Tess took up a job in an insurance company entering data. Her job did not pay her much yet she worked for long hours with no pay rise. (Wiseman, 1998 p.7). This was because women were seen "lower down the hierarchy" in the workforce. (Connell, 2009 p.2). Also, women worldwide regardless of being from developed countries or the Third World countries have always been considered cheap labour. Jobs such as Tess’s were no longer as secured and well paid or full-time job when male participation was higher. (Acker, 2010 p.379). In addition, her job as a mother was limited due to constant work and her husband losing his job.…

    • 623 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Jungle Analysis Paper

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The migration of Americans from farms to cities and the massive amount of immigration provided an abundant supply of cheap labor. Industrialists saw no economic sense in a hazardless workplace; an injured worker was easily replaced by another. Wages were kept low because there was always another worker willing to work for lower wages. The hiring of women and children as well as men created an excess…

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The extremely low salaries forced workers to stay working to try and provide necessary items for their families. Food ran scarce in families and cramped houses and tenement apartments had little light, hardly any fresh air, and awful plumbing and waste management. Workers were forced to live in these harsh conditions, because this was the only thing they could afford. Families forced the young to go out and work and relied on them to earn half a dollar a day. Most families could not save any of their money, because they were living day to day, so getting out of these conditions were almost impossible. In fact, “As late as the year 1900, [in] the United States...Most industrial workers... earned from 20 to 40 percent less than the minimum deemed necessary for a decent life” (U.S. Dept. of State). This shows that most of these workers…

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On The Gilded Age

    • 676 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Big companies would force workers to work long days for very little pay. Many immigrants did not know this before going to work for these companies. This would make the company's rich, but the workers were poor. This practice was used by Carnegie. He would work his workers 12 hours a day. He only gave his workers a day off once a year, on July 4th. A lot…

    • 676 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The importance of a college education is heard of years before it is put to the test. High schools preach it, parent’s stress it, and everybody in between seems to have something to say about it. The wage differential is one of the important and seemingly growing reasons to get a college education, but where does this differential arise from?…

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays