Now that the welfare system has been largely dismantled, the fate of America's poor depends on what happens
to them in the low-wage labor market. In this timely volume, Katherine S. Newman explores whether the poorest workers
and families benefited from the tight labor markets and good economic times of the late 1990s. Following black
and Latino workers in Harlem, who began their work lives flipping burgers, she finds more good news than we might
have expected coming out of a high-poverty neighborhood. Many adult workers returned to school and obtained trade
certificates, high school diplomas, and college degrees. Their persistence paid off in the form of better jobs,
higher pay, and greater self-respect. Others found union jobs and, as a result, brought home bigger paychecks,
health insurance, and a pension. More than 20 percent of those profiled in Chutes and Ladders are no longer poor.
A very different story emerges among those who floundered even in a good economy. Weighed down by family obligations
or troubled partners and hindered by poor training and prejudice, these "low riders" moved in and out
of the labor market, on and off public assistance, and continued to depend upon the kindness of family and friends.
Supplementing finely drawn ethnographic portraits, Newman examines the national picture to show that patterns around
the country paralleled the findings from some of New York's most depressed neighborhoods. More than a story of
the shifting fortunes of the labor market, Chutes and Ladders asks probing questions about the motivations of low-wage
workers, the dreams they have for the future, and their understanding of the rules of the game.