Group items tagged

"Historically, the idea of a minimum wage was to allow a full-time worker to earn enough to buy the basic necessities of life."

Exactly! How has our nation passed minimum wages that people can barely even live a "minimum" life on? This makes no sense to me.

I agree. That's why there needs to be a national living wage like they have in San Francisco, Washington DC, and Maryland (generally, the living wage they set is between $10 and $15 an hour--$3 to $7 more than the minimum wage).

While many of modern society's economic talk, including Ehrenreich's experience, are of the injustice corporations and the government impose on the people with low wages that cannot even sustain a family for a month (or barely, at least)... they are overlooking the smarter state governments that do adjust their minimum wage policy to match inflation. Even if it may only be a few cents of a raise per hour, one can nearly earn a thousand, which definitely helps in sustaining a family. 

The underlined quote is the epitome of the higher management's philosophy. They knew to run a prosperous business, they must sacrifice the safety and wages of their employers. Thus the labor force was despensable so conditions and wages we as cheap as they could be

She finds most of these jobs are physically and mentally exhausting. Employers overwork employees in return for low wages, few benefits, and minimal health care coverage.  She notes that it is not uncommon for many Americans trapped in the low-wage workforce to juggle two or three jobs to make ends meet.  Just like pretty much every secondary source site, it sums up the primary source and repeats the same information in a different manner. Employers abuse and take advantage of their workers, milking them for all they're worth. Big surprise. Who would have thought?

I agree with Evan in that this site gives evidence of all this, and it can all be tied to any one of these outside sources, as well as any one of our books that we have read. An example is Fast Food Nation, where the employees are treated poorly and kept down so they do not get payed much, and do not gain anything from the job.

"the conditions in factories were hazardous, and their pay was lower than that of a man. In fact the husbands controlled their wives wages. At the same time the middle and upper class women were to stay idle and only to be decorative symbols of their husband's economic success." In the lower classes, women worked for low wages in dangerous conditions; in the higher classes, respectable women were not permitted to work, and were simply symbols of their husbands' success. Regardless of socioeconomic status, women were controlled, and had to be prim, proper, and feminine without appearing too independent or self-reliant.

This shows the negative consequences of the poor treatment of workers. The irony in this is outstanding as the coworker refuses to seek medical care for an injury that occured on the job so she wont lose his low wages from that same job. The author evokes the readers sympathizes and leaves them pitying the workers

This reminds me of the Jungle when Jurgis ruined his ankle in the slaughterhouses and then got fired from him job. It shows how industrial ethics have not changed at all.

The article deals with Ehrenreich's education and her years of investigative reporting. The article tells of a second undercover book Ehrenreich wrote, "Bait and Switch". It said that she could not find a middle management job after ten months of searching. Even the middle class gets the short end of the stick in the buisness world.

This article gives historical information on the meat packing industry of the early 1900's. The article tells of the progressive movement of the age which supported reforms. The article tells of the response to "The Jungle" and the innovative aspects of the new processing regulations. The article also gives a short biography about Sinclair's childhood to his death.

"Unskilled immigrant men did the backbreaking and often dangerous work, laboring in dark and unventilated rooms, hot in summer and unheated in winter." The article shows how cruel the conditions of the factory worker were. And since the work force was unskilled and immigrants, they were often taken advantage of because they knew no better

The ethical issues addressed in The Jungle and how they relate to the bills passed after the publication. It talks about how Roosevelt responded to the book and passed many new restrictions on the Chicago meatpacking district, as well as businesses all over the country.

This article describes the changes in wages and working conditions for labor since 1900.

Haha the comparison of exotic dancers to lemonade stand kids is funny at the beginning. But, anyways, the way this article goes in to such great detail about the conditions helps to get a better understanding of how bad it still is to work in some of these places.

This article displays the McDonald's ignorance when it comes to their workers. In this unfortunate case, a McDonald's employee was left to work long hours without rest, falling asleep on the wheel and colliding with another vehicle, claiming the employee's life. Should a worker at this fast food joint die because he was just working for minimum wage? 

Relating to every novel so far, it defines business. Pit the workers against each other so they don't notice that the corporations are the ones to blame. Workers get so focused fighting each other over jobs that they fail to see that it's the suppliers of the job that are manipulating them and using them.

This relates to all the novels we have read, the large amounts of workers in Cali. in GOW and the tactics of meatpacking industries to advertise the availability of more jobs than there actually are in The Jungle, for example. This allows workers to refrain from joining together, and allows the businesses to gain more power and profit as the working class continues to grow weaker.

The availibility of workers is not something that the workers themselves can control. It is, however, the main force working against them.

"I had kept in touch with "Melissa" over the years, who was still working at Walmart, where her wages had risen from $7 to $10 an hour, but in the meantime her husband had lost his job." Based on this there is no possibility for advancement in low wage jobs no matter how long one stays commited to a company and that in the end the corporate executives only care about how much is in their pockets.

This is a good source because it can be seen in all the books as their is little to no room for advancement

I completely agree, and it also translates to The Jungle where Jurgis is loved by his bosses but only until his strength runs out and he sinks back into the pack and is eventually let go after he is injured and therefore useless to the bosses.

"The math just doesn't work. The average woman coming off of welfare since 1996 earns $7/hour, that's $280/week before taxes, and you can't support children on that, or even one person"

This is actual commentary from the author on the book, and it highlights how the working class cannot live a healthy and safe lifestyle in today's society with the wages that they earn. Ehrenreich truly believes that a change must be made to help the poor working class of our country.

I partially agree with this as it is extremely difficult for the low-wage workers to live on their salaries but with the help of welfare, medicare, and social security, I feel like it is possible, however change should be made

Talks about the dead routine of the workers' lives. They have nothing to enjoy about life, they simply work, eat, and sleep. They spend almost every hour working to stay alive. But their life isn't really worth the trouble. It sucks. And also talks about how the minimum-wage workers work harder than countless other jobs, yet because there is not much academic knowledge or professionalism required, they are disgarded as underclass or dumb. 

The author was contacted by an old boss and able to make a concession or two for the employers, talks about the cycle of the poor not being politically represented, and other commentary by the author

He government is set up to help the minimum wage workers survive by providing programs that set a standard for the industry. However, these programs are obviously ineffective proven by enrenreich's novel. It shows how the government can trick people into thinking they are being helped

"The United States has had more experience than other countries with such plans, which are meant to eliminate the adverse effects of fluctuating employment on living standards. The most successful examples have been found in the consumer goods industries, which appear to be affected less by fluctuations in the economy."

Just a bunch of helpful statistical data about women being paid less; even during modern days. Also would have been relatively helpful on the woman essay from her little essay

Virginia Woolf ties in the two classes of women and low wage workers. She understands the full comlpexity that workers esp. women are taking advantage of and used for their labor while compensated for with lousy pay. Knowing the the bosses are cheap with their money as seen in the other novels read, they know they can get away with stiffing heir employees as there are many other people wanting for jobs to open up

"In 2000, in the Middle Atlantic and East North Central regions, black families' median income was especially low relative to that of whites." In IM, a running truth that kept IM going was that "white men only allowed black people to go as far as the whites wish it to be." In this 2000 statistic, we can see that this is still happening, that even though there is parity between whites and blacks in terms of graduation rates, the median incomes, the lifestyles of millions of blacks living in the North East Central region of the country were significantly less than of their white counterparts. We were also introduced to the whole concept that racism seemed to be a distant issue when IM finds his way up north, but instead, he eventually realizes that the north was waging a secret racism war on itself, where the racism was in truth, more intense than it was in the more modest, and "well-mannered' south.

An editorial talking about how the migrant farm workers system is broken, and that many migrant farm workers are fleeing places where they can find work because of anti-illegal immigrant laws.