Nickel and Dimed

Nickel and Dimed
First edition
AuthorBarbara Ehrenreich
LanguageEnglish
PublisherMetropolitan Books
Publication date
2001
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint
Pages224 pp
AwardsChristopher Award
ISBN0-8050-8838-5

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America is a book written by Barbara Ehrenreich. Written from her perspective as an undercover journalist, it sets out to investigate the impact of the 1996 welfare reform act on the working poor in the United States.

The events related in the book took place between spring 1998 and summer 2000. The book was first published in 2001 by Metropolitan Books. It was expanded from an article she wrote from a January 1999 issue of Harper's Magazine. Ehrenreich later wrote a companion book, Bait and Switch (published September 2005), about her attempt to find a white-collar job.

In 2019, the book was ranked 13th on The Guardian's list of the 100 best books of the 21st century.[1] In 2024, it was ranked 57th on the New York Times list of the 100 best books of the 21st century.[2]

  1. ^ "The 100 best books of the 21st century". The Guardian. 21 September 2019. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  2. ^ "The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century". The New York Times. 8 July 2024. Retrieved 10 July 2024.