Barbara Ehrenreich shares her living and working experiences as a low wage, blue collar worker in the article, “Serving Florida.” During her experiences, Barbara explains her thoughts, emotions, and discovers the hardships of surviving on minimum wage. First, Barbara describes the disgusting sights she encounters in the kitchen of Jerry’s restaurant after being hired as a waitress. She is sickened by the lack of hygiene everywhere and soon learns that human feelings are disregarded as employees are lectured, humiliated, embarrassed, and under continual surveillance by those in charge. Barbara quickly learns that management use the demeaning strategies to exercise control, causing employees to remain obedient, in constant fear of losing their …show more content…
To being with, Ehrenreich shows how low wage workers can easily be exploited, using George as an example when he is falsely accused of stealing and cannot defend himself, due to lack of English skills. Additionally, she knows how the pressures of being employed in a low wage job affects worker’s personality causing Barbara to feel ashamed of not standing up for George. Furthermore, Barbara is distraught that she had forgotten to give George her tips. The fact that the narrator has Barbara just leaves after her customer crisis was very powerful, showing her emotional mindset and confirming working in a low wage environment is extremely stressful. Also, Barbara’s actions reinforce that a high turn-over rate is a major problem of low wage work. More importantly, the narrator ends the story with a heartwarming gesture as Barbara gives Gail her trailer keys and continues to worry about George. These actions validate that the scientific experiment had a personal impact on Barbara. The article, “Serving Florida” planted a seed in the reader’s mind that life and work in a low-class society is a difficult vicious cycle with little hope of escape for