working poor

Fifteen-year-old Sonny Bravo moves with his mother and her new husband to an apartment complex called The Flowers where he becomes caught up in the lives of his neighbors, and tries to do what he can to ease the racial tensions that threaten to destroy all of them.

"The story of low-wage workers rising up around the world to demand respect and a living wage. We Are All Fast Food Workers Now: The Global Uprising Against Poverty Wages traces the evolution of a new global labor movement sparked and sustained by low-wage workers from Manila to Manhattan, from Baja California to Bangladesh, from Capetown to Cambodia. This is an up close and personal look at globalization and its costs, as seen through the eyes and told whenever possible through the words of low-wage workers themselves: the berry pickers and small farmers, fast food servers, retail cashiers, garment workers, hotel housekeepers, home health care aides, airport workers and adjunct professors who are fighting for respect, safety and a living wage. The result of 140 interviews by award-winning historian Annelise Orleck, and with original photographs by Liz Cooke, this is a powerful look at neo-liberalism and its damages, a story of resistance and rebellion, a reflection on hope and change as it rises from the bottom up"--.

Deepak Singh chronicles his downward mobility as an immigrant to a small town in Virginia, where he moved to from India after earning his MBA, but was only able to get a minimum-wage job in an electronics store, confronting American mores and deeply entrenched racism in the process.

To discover how others exist on minimum wage, the author leaves her home, takes the cheapest lodgings she can find, and accepts whatever jobs she's offered. Moving from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, she works variously as a waitress, nursing home aide, and a Wal-Mart sales clerk. She learned many things, including the fact that one job is not enough: you need at least two if you intend to live indoors.

Fifteen-year-old Sonny Bravo moves with his mother and her new husband to an apartment complex called The Flowers where he becomes caught up in the lives of his neighbors, and tries to do what he can to ease the racial tensions that threaten to destroy all of them.

The author describes his personal experiences after giving up his white-collar job to experience a life that is supported by a minimum wage salary, and includes his time spent as a pizza deliveryman, a construction worker, an emergency room technician, and more.

A memoir chronicling the author's attempt to see if, starting out with 25 dollars in cash, a sleeping bag, and the clothes on his back, he could obtain a car, furnished apartment, and 2500 dollars in savings after a year of living and working on the road.