Nickel and Dime

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their employees so that they know what is going on. That way their employees wouldn’t have to be monitored with time cards and tests. They might even want to perform better.

3. The workers in Nickel and Dimed receive almost no benefits -- no overtime pay, no retirement funds, and no health insurance. Is this fair? Do you think an increase in salary would redress the lack of benefits, or is this a completely separate problem?

This is absolutely not fair. The workers in Nickel and Dimed deserve overtime pay, retirement, and health insurance like every other working American. Without these " unskilled" labor positions, the American economy would collapse. They should be recognized as valuable parts of the companies that they represent, and not written off because they are considered to be " unskilled" workers.

An increase in salary is always a welcome idea, but it does not compensate for the fact that the employees in the book receive almost no benefits. Unless they are going to pay them significantly more, enough to buy private health insurance for their families and start their own retirement plans, a raise in wages would be insufficient. I sincerely doubt that the companies would ever pay their employees enough to afford these things, they barely pay them enough to live on, so benefits are made a separate issue. I find the lack of overtime pay extremely disturbing. I know that, more than likely, nobody was monitoring the companies anyway, but I had always thought that there was some sort of a law about overtime pay. I asked my husband, and he thought that there was a law requiring overtime pay for any work over 40 hours weekly in the U.S. My husband is a union millwright, and there would be major consequences if he didn’t get his overtime pay. Then again, since these workers don’t have unions, who would fight for them? Who is monitoring the companies?

From time to time we all hear stories about people who fraud the welfare system. They may, for instance, be legally divorced or separated but actually live together and consider themselves married. This is often to keep their food stamps or Medicare cards. I used to find this absolutely appalling, but after reading this book, I can understand it better. I mean, these were hard working people who could not afford to go to the doctor. They sometimes couldn’t afford groceries. Something has to be done to help these people. I really think that the government needs to step in and require that these workers be treated more fairly.

Note: After writing this, I confirmed our thoughts on overtime pay. The easiest to read resources were from lawyers who would like to help you file a lawsuit against your employer for unpaid wages. Working "off the clock," like Barbara did at the maids, was specifically mentioned on the site. Overtime pay is to be 1 and ½ times regular pay, and regular pay cannot be below minimum wage.