Nickel and Dimed: Are Americans Able To Get By on Today's Wages?

I picked up this book for my eBay bookstore because it describes kind of how I feel about the job that I have. I moved back to my small home town a couple of years ago after layoffs in the city where I am living and the jobs are pretty scarce. There are mostly retail jobs which I have found that the wages have not gone up much from the last time that I worked retail which was a long time ago.

I saw this presentation on the book and it intrigued me even more. I can't wait to read it to see how much of the book (written a while ago) is still parallel to what is going on today. I suspect that it is pretty telling. 

It is a shame how you can work for a company that makes millions of dollars a year but insist on not paying their employees nearly what they are worth. As a result, the good ones get burned out and move on. 

I became interested in just where we were with average wages these days and if Americans were still being 'nickel and dimed' or if that was how I am feeling. With the average retail wage being just $10 an hour and the average apartment in most places being around $850 I don't think things have gotten much better for most people in this country. What do you think?

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