ETHNOGRAPHY RESEARCH PROJECT

Ethnography Research Project

Ethnography Research Project

Introduction

The topic that I chose to study for this ethnographic research project was minimum wage work. Minimum wage is the least possible wage that an employer can give under legal restrictions imposed by a governmental regulating authority (Neumark & Wascher 2008, pp.2-4). The wage could be on a monthly, hourly or even on a daily basis. According to supporters, the establishment of this boundary avoids exploitation by employers and it also assures that the workers would be able to afford the basic needs of themselves and/or a family member. But critiques have their own view. They are of the opinion that this established rate “floor” is responsible for being a contributor to the increasing unemployment rate amongst the youth and untrained labours. Minimum wage work is viewed from the perspective of skilled labour work and it involves the finishing of very small and usually unwanted jobs. Workers with front desk jobs at college dorms, dishwashers at restaurants, works at a fast food outlet and gas station attendants are all examples of jobs that have minimum wage limits established by the federation. The U.S. federal minimum wage (per hour) has been increased from $5.15 in 2006 to $7.25 in 2009 (US Dept. of Labour 2013, p.n.d.). However, adjustments for inflation and the depreciation of the U.S. Dollar make the actual value much lower than this stated one. This decrease in the earned value and an ever increasing number of people being employed on the minimum wage rate are the reasons that are serving as additions to the level of poverty in the country. This is clearly due to the insufficiency of the minimum rate, which creates issues of affordability for its receivers, and subsequently they are not living well (Cunningham 2007, pp.35-47).

This study was conducted with the aim of understanding the complications that arise when unwanted jobs are undertaken and are still not paid adequately for the efforts that are invested. I chose to use the observational method for my analysis. I carried out the observation in a McDonald's fast food outlet. It is located on a High Street and has a huge college campus nearby. Business is also going on in the downtown district which also is close by. I chose this location for a number of reasons; it provides me an opportunity to observe a wide variety of workers and customers, and the diversity of the communities living in that area would improve the quality and general precision of my report. The observer role that I adopted was a third person point of view. I maintained a non-suspicious, subtle profile by not interacting or socializing with other customers or employee. This was in exception to the interview that I conducted. My maintenance of a low profile was due to the reason that I wanted pure data; people's behaviours would have naturally changed if they would have known I was doing an observation. I ensured that I remain neutral throughout the interview, and had also ...