According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), all employers must abide by the minimum wage policy which states that they must not pay their employees a wage below the set minimum wage. It is often believed that it serves as a protection for the citizens. Though the minimum wage law benefits employees because employers cannot pay them below the minimum wage, the minimum wage, however, does not "protect" them from the struggles and hardships they will most likely encounter. Rather, as millions of Americans work in full-time minimum wage jobs, several of them discover that their wages are insufficient to survive in today's society. In the book Nickel and Dimed, the author Barbara Ehrenreich, a journalist with a PH.D, does undercover reporting about low wage workers by obtaining minimum wage jobs in three areas of the United States--Florida, Maine, and Minnesota. As she journeys through the hardships and struggles of becoming a minimum wage worker, Ehrenreich claims that it is impossible to survive as a minimum wage worker. In the chapter "Scrubbing in Maine," Ehrenreich provides massive evidence that it is difficult to survive even though she has 2 jobs.

Through successfully incorporating examples of her struggles and hardships in her minimum wage jobs in Maine, Ehrenreich is able to convey an important message to the readers: Low wage workers are never truly appreciated. They suffer financially, physically, and socially, just to satisfy the rest of society. These jobs--maids, retail workers, waitresses, nursing home aides--are part of everyday lives that provide aid to the middle and high class. Low wage workers play an essential role to society, but in return receive low wages and looks of