AAUW Book Review Breakfast: Can Anyone Live on the Minimum Wage?

Millions of Americans work full time, year-round, for poverty-level wages. Welfare-reform rhetoric promises that a job—any job—can be the ticket to a better life. In 1998, journalist Barbara Ehrenreich decided see if that was true. She left her home, took the cheapest lodgings she could find, and accepted whatever jobs she was offered.

Nickel and Dimed is the result of her experience. On Monday, Nov. 6, Matt Tanner will review Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, as the local branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) kicks off its 2023-24 season of monthly Book Review Breakfasts at 9:30am in the Richardson Center of the Vero Beach campus of Indian River State College, 6155 College Lane.

As Executive Director of United Against Poverty (UP), Tanner is well-qualified to address whether Ehrenreich’s findings are true today, 25 years later, here in Indian River County, where the minimum wage is now $12/hour and the cheapest one-bedroom apartment may be more than $1000/month. UP-Indian River County seeks to serve those in poverty by providing crisis care, food/household subsidy, employment training and placement, and more.

The Book Review Breakfast is free and open to the public, although donations of new or gently used children’s books are encouraged. The books are used to stock the local AAUW’s four “Little Free Libraries” for children in the community.

AAUW-Vero Beach is a 501(c)3 charitable organization, whose purpose is to advance equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. We support scholarships, grants and programs for women and girls in Indian River County.