For her book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, Barbara Ehrenreich, a middle-aged investigative journalist, assumed the position of infiltration of a new divorced housewife who returns to work after several years of unemployment. The reason Ehrenreich infiltrated in this manner was due to her belief that a single mother returning to work after years on welfare would struggle to support her family on low or minimum wages. Her cover story was the closest to that of a welfare mother since she had no children and did not receive welfare. At the time she was developing the idea for the book, "about four million women about to be forced out of the job market by welfare reform" were going to have to survive on an hourly wage of 6 or $7; the wages of inexperienced and uneducated people. This article will discuss Ehrenreich's approach to research, his findings, and the economic hypotheses we can make based on the information presented in his book. Ehrenreich adopted the ethnographic tool of the sociologist for his research. She became a secret observer while doing her job. As such, she only exposed herself as a journalist to her colleagues at the end of each job. She did this so as not to feel the Hawthorne effect; the effect that occurs when people are observed knowingly and therefore change their normal habits to please the observer. Although the book is an interesting read and his personal experiences illuminate many of the dilemmas and alienating jobs of low-wage workers, its research pitfalls outweigh its strengths. There are several inconsistencies between the situations Ehrenreich placed herself in and real life. .... middle of paper ......Even despite the pitfalls of Ehrenreich's research, she managed to shine a light on the daily plight of low-wage workers. She obtained employment in several low-wage service jobs and she also formed friendly relationships with her co-workers. Unfortunately, she was unable to achieve her goal of earning enough money to pay the next month's rent on her place, as she had dictated as a sign of success at the start of the project. Without this success, she can truly say that the plight of low-wage workers and women leaving welfare is extremely difficult, with great hardship and lack of fulfillment, as these lower-class participants work day after day day to hold their heads high and be content with what they have, even if little. Works Cited Ehrenreich, B. (2011). Nicke and Dimed: On (not) making it in America. New York, New York: Picador.