According to the Simplified Poverty SS, Benton had the highest median household income at $56,016, while Lee had the lowest at $25,724.

1. Right off the bat, Ehrenreich has to “get in the mindset” of a worker who barely makes enough to get by, and she had to change her mindset of “feeling sorry for the parents who had paid college tuition for these blu-collar wannabes” in order to really submerge herself in this project and experience it first hand. One of the major discoveries she makes after a month or so of working in these conditions in the severity of her coworkers living situations, as well as her own after moving to Key West. One example that really puts how much this project changed her previous day-to-day life was the fact that she had to spend $30 on a pair of khakis, which she claimed to be a “setback” and searched several department stores to find the cheapest pair.
2. I would start off by going to waiter and waitressing jobs, specifically locations such as Waffle House that are open late or 24 hours. I would be as respectful as possible, explain what I was doing, and start off by letting them tell me their story. I would ask about kids, what ends they are trying to meet, the types of neighborhoods they live in our their living situations. How they got to where they are, and what they see for themselves going forward.