the working class and minimum wage

I enjoyed both of these stories because I could understand them and relate to them in certain ways. In Barbara Ehrenreich's story Nickel-and-Dimed she takes us through the life of the underpaid working class. She introduces characters to us as well as a little bit of their background. She goes mainly into their living conditions, because that mainly is all they talk about. her story just goes to show you how hard it is to survive on minimum wage and to jsut get by with all the expenses in life.
The other authors James Spradley and Brenda Mann discussed a similar topic but less people based and more social grouping. In their essay they discussed how there are three classes or categories of people, customers, employees, and managers. From there on they give us a layout of the social network of a particular resturant, Brady's Bar. I didn't like this story as much because to me it wasnt really about the people. You didn't get to know anyone personally, but with the Nickel-and-Dimed story you did.