Ehrenreich reflects on the jobs she had and is amazed on how much pain low wage people can handle. She makes a point when when she asks, "If you hump away at menial jobs 360-plus days a year, does some kind of repetitive injury of the spirit set in?"(61). Ehrenreich persistently tells the reader that the low wage workers lose their willpower and spirit from the exhaustion of work and all the pain they have to endure in their workplace. This is revealed through Ehrenreich's occupation as a house cleaner which is not only spiritually, but physically draining as well. It is true that low wage jobs can cause damages physically and spiritually just like what Ehrenreich experienced in her journey. .
5. Nickel and Dimed was written in a very momentous time for the nation's poor people. During this time the Welfare reform was enacted by the U.S. in the 1990's. This reform was supposed to increase employment and it did but it was not as successful as it was thought to be. As Ehrenreich searches for jobs she encounters many jobs that do not pay enough to sustain her. For example "The wages Winn-Dixie is offering-$6 and a couple of dimes to start with-are not enough" (15). She has the choice to keep looking for a job but other people do not. She finds many jobs that pay a very low price and those jobs do are not enough to sustain one person. As Ehrenreich continues to work she finds out that "Claude, the Haitian cook, is desperate to get out of the two room apartment he shares with his girlfriend and two other, unrelated people" (20). Just like they share an apartment, most of the poverty population live with groups of people. They can not afford the rent of an apartment alone because they are not payed enough so they have to live with other people. The Welfare Reform was supposed to get people out of poverty but so far it has not been successful. Continuing to work at at different paces during the 1990's it was found that "In 1996 the number of persons holding two or more jobs averaged 7.