The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans and Their Families

An astonishing 35 million Americans work full time but do not make a living wage. They are nursing home staff, poultry processors, pharmacy assistants, ambulance drivers, child care workers, data entry keyers, janitors. Indeed, one in four American workers lives in or near poverty. Despite the great wealth of the United States, these low-wage employees have lower living standards than comparable workers in other industrial nations.

Beth Shulman spent several years traveling across the country talking to those living on low wages. In writing The Betrayal of Work, she provides the fullest portrait of America's working poor, dispelling a number of myths along the way: that lower unemployment has meant better living conditions for the poor; that making bad jobs into good jobs requires insurmountably difficult reforms; that low-wage work is always low-skilled. Following in the footsteps of Barbara Ehrenreich's bestselling Nickel and Dimed, The Betrayal of Work is sure to be one of the most talked about public policy books of the year.