Book Review of The Betrayal of Work
Beth Shulman Presents How Minimum Wage Jobs Fail Those in Poverty
Jun 22, 2009
Beth Shulman, in the preface to the paperback edition of her book The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans, stresses that "we Americans have to decide whether we will live up to our highest ideals." Shulman follows and reports on several low-income Americans, those who make up the so-called "working poor," to deliver her message that America's promises have been broken.
The New Poverty
Shulman argues that "old" forms of poverty have existed in rural America, but today, she says, poverty has hit our working class in "historic proportions." So many Americans barely get by on low- and minimum wage jobs with no benefits, and yet, she argues, our country would feel the pinch without someone to fill these jobs.
To make her point, Shulman spent time with and documented the lives of workers like Cynthia Porter, a CNA for a nursing home in Alabama, a woman with two children, no vehicle, and a job 25 miles away from her home, separated from her husband who doesn't pay child support; and Flor Segunda, a janitor who cleans offices in a law firm, a woman who speaks limited English and has no vehicle. She and her husband struggle just to keep their tiny apartment and pay for a babysitter to watch their children while they're both working.
The Betrayal: Minimum Wages
Shulman methodically lays out how difficult it is for low-wage earners to get by. Not only do these working poor have to live on low incomes, but they also don't have benefits that higher-paid workers have come to expect, things like sick and vacation pay, health insurance benefits, and retirement plans.
She also emphasizes that many of these jobs are dangerous, "physically damaging and emotionally degrading." From an employee at a poultry plant who sharpens knives for a living to other workers subject to mandatory drug testing, Shulman makes a strong case for the fact that just because many of these jobs are labelled "low skill" does not necessarily make them so.
Restoring America's Promises
After demonstrating in detail the horrible working conditions many of these workers face as well as showing how difficult it is to get by with these jobs, Shulman then outlines myths that many better-off Americans believe, which, Shulman says, makes them unsympathetic. For example, one of the four myths she discusses is the "mobility myth," or the "belief that enduring the harshness of these jobs is temporary, that mobility will take care of the problem." She exposes this myth by explaining that moving up the ladder "will not bring significant advancement to most low-wage workers" and by demonstrating that these types of jobs have "historically . . . had few career ladders." She emphasizes that low-wage earners do not "lack motivation or diligence."
Shulman then outlines what she calls "A Compact with Working Americans." She maintains that "workers should be assured that if they work hard they will be treated fairly and have the resources to provide for themselves and their families." She then gives suggestions on exactly how America can do that--by offering a "sufficient income to meet . . . basic needs," guaranteeing "a safe and healthy working environment," and more.
Balance the Inequities
Shulman emphasizes throughout the book how keeping low-wage earners impoverished harms our entire country, because it hurts our economy and communities, among other things. She concludes by essentially asking Americans, as a collective, to no longer "tolerate this injustice." She reminds us that "we can no longer pretend that if the problem is ignored it will disappear."
Shulman's book is moving and will stir its readers' emotions. Social service workers will nod their heads when they read its pages; politicians would do well to read it, as would anyone who has ever thought that persons living in poverty are lazy or simply unskilled. Shulman respectfully yet unflinchingly describes how millions of Americans live and struggle day by day every day.
Resources:
Shulman, Beth. The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans. The New Press. ISBN 978-1-59558-000-9
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