She quickly feels overwhelmed by the work, and mortified by her lack of competence. On the first day she follows Gail, a waitress, to learn the tricks of the trade. She works from 2:00 to 10:00pm for $2.43 plus tips.

So begins Ehrenreich’s stint as a waitress at Hearthside. She has come in search of a housekeeping gig, but she is conducted to the attached restaurant-“a dismal spot looking out on a parking garage”-and told to come into work tomorrow wearing “black slacks and black shoes.” One day Ehrenreich finally lands a job, at a big discount chain hotel.

“They are,” she writes, “the employers’ insurance policy against the relentless turnover of the low-wage workforce.” She decides that the paltry wages Winn-Dixie offers-barely over $6 an hour for starters-are insufficient “to compensate for this indignity.”Īfter shuffling from one hotel and supermarket to another for three days and not hearing back from a single one of the twenty or so places to which she has applied, Ehrenreich begins to realize that the want ads are highly unreliable indicators of the jobs available at any given time. Ehrenreich aces the interview, but she is told she must do a urine test before beginning work. At Winn-Dixie, she is escorted to a “room decorated with posters illustrating how to look ‘professional’ (it helps to be white and, if female, permed) and warning of the slick promises that union organizers might try to tempt with.” The Winn-Dixie interview is multiple-choice and laced with moralistic questions: “Would I turn in a fellow employee if I caught him stealing?” for example. She applies at Best Western, Econo Lodge, and HoJo’s, and also applies to a few supermarket posts. After some searching, housekeeping seems to be the most attractive option. Next, Ehrenreich looks through the want ads, ruling out certain occupations, such as hotel front-desk clerk, and trying to steer away from waitressing. She starts looking for a place to live, settling eventually on a $500-a-month “efficiency.” The upside is “it’s a sweet little place-a cabin, more or less, set in the swampy backyard of the converted mobile home where my landlord, an affable TV repairman, lives with his bartender girlfriend.” The downside: it’s thirty miles away from Key West’s employment opportunities.

It’s the town closest to where she lives, so she attributes the decision mostly to “laziness.” Barbara Ehrenreich decides to start her “low-wage life” in Key West, Florida.

Nickel and dimed cliff notes