Book : Hard Work: Life in Low-pay Britain by Polly Toynbee - Literature review Example

This book primarily uncovers the brutality of the British life, airs the unheard voices of the economic victims, reveals the unnoticed faces of the suffering British lot and finally portrays the social injustice in the whole of Britain. Polly Toynbee takes time off her lucrative job and delves into the world of a minimum wage worker for a whole month taking a series of jobs ranging from hospital porter, dinner lady, cake parker, telemarketer and even a nursing home care assistant just to have immediate information on how it is like to live under the minimum wage.

The end of this inquiry is a number of startling discoveries that have for a long time been hidden from the British public (Toynbee, 2003, p12). Polly discovers that working under the minimum wage is enforced poverty. She states that it is hard enough for people who receive this little wages to stay on the ladder and climbing up can only be a fantasy. The minimum wage workers are drowned in a state of eternal poverty from which they cannot a way out. According to Polly Toynbee, the minimum wage workers are left to be victims of the scorching economy that demands a lot of them (Toynbee, 2003, p52).

Polly Toynbee also tackles the issue of outsourcing and how it has affected the minimum wage worker. The traditionally public sector roles have been given to a third party such as the private sector and contractors (Toynbee, 2003, p67). These public jobs such as hospital portending, public sector cleaners and caregivers have all been outsourced. This is a move by the British government of hindering the formation of unions that will help fight for the rights of the minimum wage worker. The private sector and contractor are only driven by one objective of making profit, the do not care about the worker.

This has created the exploitation of the worker just to reach their objective (Toynbee, 2003, p98). The private companies and