SOCIOLOGY 2
Introduction
In the United States, most of the workers in the low-wage jobs are facing a lot of
complexity barriers hence leading to poverty (Shaefer & Edin, 2013). This task is about a
journalist by the name Barbara Ehrenreich who went ahead to America to work as a housekeeper
inorder to investigate about the low-wage workforce. The task will analyse how to measure
poverty and the major trends; how the poverty in American society differs with that of other
countries and the myths about the media podcast.
From the story of Ehrenreich, I have learned that the low-wage work is not a solution to
poverty and is not for the homeless. We should not only sit at the table and theorize, but we
should move to different places and environments to learn more about them and their economies.
Starting conditions are everything in the low-wage life just as Ehrenreich had prepared herself.
According to the story of Ehrenreich, the numbers of people holding more than one job are 7.8
million where most live in cars or vans.
Barbara Ehrenreich could not have had a different experience as a woman of color
because just like her, the other workers too lived in the same conditions as her. Andy the white
cook lived in a dry-docked boat. Just like the other workers in Hearthside, the expenses were
more as compared to the salary hence she had to look for an alternative job (Loprest, 2011).
Most of the servers in Jerrys are white so Ehrenreich is termed as server material hence she
couldn’t have a different experience there. Those who lacked working husbands or boyfriends
had a second job just like her.
Poverty is measured through a statistical tool which analyses the progress against
poverty. The measure was adopted in 1960 to represent the income required to provide a

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Sociology: Poverty in America and Barbara Ehrenreich's Investigation

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