One of the most acute and original North American social thinkers decides to hide as an unskilled worker to reveal the dark side of American prosperity, collecting her experiences in low-paid jobs, as part of a research work on the working conditions of the poor classes of U.S. Millions of Americans work full time, all year, for a miserable salary. Ehrenreich, inspired by the liberal rhetoric that promises that any job can be the passport to a better life, decided to experience the life regime of these workers. How can someone survive, let alone prosper, for six dollars / hour? The author left her house, rented the cheapest rooms and accepted any work that was offered. From Florida to Maine or Minnesota, she worked as a hotel maid, cleaning woman, nursing assistant and employee of Wal-Mart: a painful odyssey, full of black humor and a thousand stratagems desperate to survive in the American workplace. He soon discovered that no job is truly "unqualified", even the most humble occupations require an exhausting mental and muscular effort. And that a single job is not enough to get ahead.