The relationship of class and social inequality

Ehrenreich Meets Mills

The sociologist of the 1950's C. Wright Mills' paraphrases a common American belief that one's work or livelihood is an exuberant expression of the soul, rather than a way to pay for life's necessities and to provide for one's private pleasures. This cliche about the uplifting nature of work reflects a common, American misapprehension particularly prevalent in Millis' day that what one does for a living in a capitalist society can be equated with one's character and self-worth.

Yet, in her work as an undercover journalist in her text, Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America, Barbara Ehrenreich noted that this ideology was prevalent amongst lower-wage workers as well. While working at the lower levels of organizations, far away from Millis' white collar workers, Ehrenreich met individuals in so-called menial jobs who were writers like herself during their off hours, and individuals who put their personal safety at risk to do their job well. However, the creativity of employees during their off hours did not find expression during their work hours, anymore than white-collar workers, despite the fact that these employees were on the front lines of corporate service.

For example, waitresses are prohibited from even offering extra packs of butter to customers and employee suggestions regarding where they might be most effectively deployed when shelving at Wal-Mart are ignored. Most poignantly, a woman named Holly working for a commercial organization known as The Maids put her young, pregnant body at risk to clean the houses of the wealthy, and this is simply regarded as necessary pro forma behavior by the organization. Like Mills' white-collar faceless men, this service above and beyond the call of employee duty was expected, and went unrecognized and garnered her no additional remuneration.