spotted in the background of the children's film "stewart little." the price is $285,000. more news on our website, aljazeera.com. unemployment is dropping and millions of americans are still feeling down because they say no matter how much they hustle, they can't get ahead. paycheck to paycheck, it's inside story. ♪ hello, i am ray swarez. to understand the way americans look at wealth

and poverty, you have to keep a very important split in mind. many of us would tell a pollster that individuals have big forces working on them. in a way that shapes what they earn, where they live, what they buy. but untold millions might tell that same pollster, that if you are poor, it also reflects character defects. poor life choices unwilling to work hard enough americans believes that, when the financial lives of millions of families collapsed even as they worked harder than ever to keep their heads above water this time the americans convinced that it's become too far to get ahead. ella barns williams, who has worked in a

restaurant, is one life, one story, but hers is a refrain echoed by the millions of people across america, struggling to make ends meet. >> you know you want your kids to experience different things, but sometimes you will finance doesn't meet the requirement, and so that means you have to go out here, and grind harder, but instead of paycheck to paycheck, it isn't cutting it for single parents. >> a recent survey found that nearly half of all say they live from one fay day to the neck, and they are not all poor or living at or below the poverty line. in fact, a federal reserve report released this july, on the economic state of u.s. households showed that while gained have been made, economic challenges remain for a significant portion of the population. >> yet, the economy added 321,000 jobs last month.

marking the 10th month in a row of growth greater than 200,000. unemployment stayed at a steady 5.8%, and although wage gains creeped up, the lower income workers especially those who rely on tips pay remains largely the same. for a look at an old problem, consider this. the u.s. financial diaries is a joint project, with nyu, and the center for financial services. it tracks more than 200 low to moderate income households for a year, the aim, to collect details data on how families managed day-to-day. and dig a little deeper for answers. two key findings, a surprising amount of volatility in incomes from month to month, the intersection of finance with health, transportation, housing, and benefits. the shifts are very competitive, it is preferable to work a saturday night. >> also in play, seasonal

jobs. part time work, and fluctuating schedules what does this do to the ideal of prosperity in getting ahead? a poll out shows only 64% still believe in the american dream that's down from 72% in 2009 at the height of the financial crisis. >> doing little jobbens here and this, to pay one bill, and then i try to pay another, it is hard, it is very hard how does the increasingly widespread impression that getting ahead is harder and that it will likely be harder for our kids to live better than their parents reflect the daily lives. is part of the problem, that a lot of americans simply have no idea what it is hike to get by on less than they are. joining us for a look at life,

paycheck to paycheck, tim ogden, linda, author of hand to mouth, living in bootstrap america, and kim bo bo, executive director of the interfaith worker justice and author of wage theft in america tim, let me start with you, how did the diaries work, and what were you trying to find out? welt, ray, what we did, is we tracks 235 low and moderate income households and four different maces representing ten different demographic profiles and the way we did that, is someone from the team visited these families every two weeks and tries to track with them every dollar they earned, the spent, so that we could have a better sense of what it is that they are doing to make ends meet. where are the charges coming from where are they saving how much are they saving what are the

challenges to building up savings, how are they able to get ahead, what are the issues. >> they stand in for literally millions of people, it's interesting that we are just trying to dig down into how those lives are lived day-to-day, now in 20/20/04 teen, what are some things you found out. >> it is remarkable that this came out of a similar study that was done. and the realization that no one has done something like this for american families that we are operating in a real knowledge gap. we do see some commonalities some dissparing commonalities between what we saw when we studied households living under 2-dollar as day, and what we saw in communities in new york, and cincinnati, and mississippi, and california. a couple of those things that bear across all those populations is one, a great deal ovule dirty

of income and expenses. it's very very hard for these families to predict how much money they are going to make, and that's a variety of reasons some i don't have mentioned seasonal labor, unpredictable work hours jobs that come to an end abruptly without warning for many families we also see a great deal of complexity that is unnecessary outcome of that. so these families have to put together very complex financial lives to make ends meet, given the volty tillty that they encounter. >> it is interesting to me that your book is getting the attention it is getting because so many people don't know about the fragility of family life, when you are below the median wage what kind of feedback are you getting? as you have toured the book and talked about your life to others. >> honestly, it is been shocking to me, that it's news at all.

because the experiences i have had are the experiences of 45 million americans, when we are talking about instability, and we are talking about wage and income, people assume that we are unstable because we are poor, instead -- or poor because we are instable, instead of that we are unstable because we are poor, and we can't count on those wages and we don't know what time we h make it off work, and that makes it hard to get to a babysitter, it's hard to man ten years in the future, when you don't know how much you may make next month. so when you take those stresses zoo account, we know it reduces your ability to handle cognitive things. the buzz word in the business is band with. where it cuts down on the ability that you have to really think things through, the really enjoy your life, because you are so busy worrying about well, what time might i be hope home, and do i need to run off to work again. it is no way to make a

life you can survive, you cannot thrive, and that is an important distinction we talk about the american dream, and people not thinking that it exists any more in larger and larger numbers because the american dream was never supposed to be that you can be kim kardashian, or go from rags to riches or even me with a book deal, the american dream is supposed to be that if you are loyal to your employer, you go to work, you will be able to put food on the table for your family, but more you h have the tame to go home and eat it with them. and that's just increasingly not true. >> a lot of the stories you have told, have to do with the running in place, where you are hustling from day-to-day but there's a fueltity to it, because you can hardly get your head above water. >> you can say 5-dollar as week, and at the end of the year, you will have $240 i will

guarantee you, any family living paycheck to paycheck, will run up against an expense, an unexpected need, something breaking it will eat that $240. so every time you manage to save a little bit, it goes away. every time you maic a small gain at work, the next week you get fewer hours. and it becomes very frustrating and very hard to tolerate, foul and time again, thinking okay, maybe maybe this time we have done it, maybe this is going to be the one, and then to see it all go away so you never did bother to begin with. it's incredibly depressing, it is demoralizes and then to been told that we are stupid or lazy, because we aren't handling things that nobody can possibly handle well, is doubling down. on the demoralization. we are not stupid, and nobody that holds down two or three jobs is lazy. period, the end, by definition. >>

a lot of the people, from your research, it would indicate they are not getting pays for the work. >> that's right. wage theft is a crisis in this country for both low wage and middle income workers. so one out of four low wageworkers isn't even payed the minimum wage. the law is cheer, they are not paid it. huge number of workers who work more than 40 hour as week, and out to get paid overtime wages simply aren't paid that. other workers are told to come in a half hour early, before they clock in and do work, or clock out and then continue to do work, and so they are not pays for all their work, and then there's those who are called independent contractors when they are really employees and so their employers are not paying them overtime, payroll taxes, unemployment, worker's comp, and really not only stealing from workers but stealing from the public coffers as well.

this is not small dollars this is the average low wage worker loses $2,600 a year in unpaid wages that's a lot of money from wage theft. >> from time to time you will read in the papers oever a business magazine that a big corporation is getting sued and often the workers prevail, and back pay is the checks are cut for back pay, are the workers that you are talking about, feeling power less? weak, afraid to come after their bosses for that money well, certainly some do come forward, but not nearly as many who -- who are having their waging stolen people tell me all the time, kim, i know i am not getting the overtime i out to get, but at least i have a job well, again, some are getting their money back,

and millions are getting -- it's not just mall and pops it is large companies as well so we need to stop this crisis of wage theft we will be back with more inside story after a quick break, when we return, are we just in the understandable hangover from the economic near death experience of 20007, eight, and nine, singed or burns by the downturn? are we going to rebuild that old american optimism, or is there something deeper going on among the struggling classes of american families stay with us. >> beyond the verdict and on the streets >> there's been another teenager shot and killed by the police >> a fault lines special investigation >> there's a general distrust of this prosecutor >> courageous and in depth... >> it's a target you can't get rid of... >> the untold story... >> who do you protect? >> ...of what's really going on in ferguson >> they were so angry because it could have been them

>> fault lines, ferguson: race and justice in the u.s. one hour special only on al jazeera america

>> tuesday, the landmark series concludes. >> i'm on a mission that i have to keep this business going. >> an intimate look at middle class families. >> i panicked because, how we gonna pay that? >> the issues we face. >> there's no way to pay for it. >> fighting to survive. >> she's like my role model... as in perseverance. >> building a better future. >> it's coming together little by little. >> real life solutions you can't afford to miss. >> we're making it the best that we can. >> "america's middle class - rebuilding the dream". >> tuesday. >> 7:00 eastern. >> only on al jazeera america. investigation side story. i'm ray swears with losing faith in the american dream, what's different about the lives of economically insecure americans that shaped the choices they make, is the faith in getting ahead through hard work fading among middle class people

in a way that's not such inconvenient, or unjust, but dangerous? that just said this is futile? i am working as hard as i am working and it is not working? >> i will tell you what i chose, if you will pay me the minimum allowable by law, i will give you as much work as you have paid me for. if you expect joy, if you expect gratitude, if you expect an extra effort, then i will need something like training, or possibly some guaranteed i will even have a job this time next week. and i will tell you there are millions of us doing that same thing, where we will work as hard as we are paid to because we are honest, but we won't go above and beyond for the companies. that don't guarantee us anything. that feel no sense of loyalty, there is no back

and forth, we are supposed to perform empathy and happiness, and be truly glad when it a customer walks in our doors but it doesn't get us forward. more to the point, we are exhausted. we are working two and three jobs and trying to deal with all of the logistics and still trying to have something with a sense of humanity. question don't have that much time to worry about whether the american dream exists because by the time we get home, it is time to clean, the than we need to take a shower and go to sleep so we can get up in six hours and do it all again. the american dream is a luxury for those who have time to dream. and we don't. we are too busy working. so to hear people say what do you think about the economy, and what do you think about it's direction, i see record corporate profits and $603 billion that wal-mart is costing the general economy, while i am being told that i should feel bad about myself because i am not doing better, again, one

third of the country, 45 million americans, we are not getting ahead, we are not seeing these record profits we don't get profit sharing. and if you believe in a free market, if you say that incentives are a thing that people respond to, i am here to tell you that the incentives are off for so many millions of thaws we are about to run into serious trouble. >> it is true, isn't it, that bosses are asks for more than just your presence and punning chew wallty? they want you to compose yourself in a certain way, and behave in a certain way, in addition to merely doing base line compliance. >> absolutely. they are not paying decent livable wages, they are not providing upon fits that you can raise families on, and then they want you to work a schedule completely around their needs with no sense of your family, i met a

worker the other day, who he has to call the day before to find out what his hours are going to be, how can you have a life and raise a family like that. and she is also exactly right about this question of inequality, when you have a company like wal-mart, which is really the poster child for inequality, where six family members have the same wealth as 42% of the american public, and they are paying workers poverty wages. company could do better. it is mcdonalds, it is burger king, it is the whole range of these companies that are really driving down wages and standards for all workers in the country. we cannot have a consumer based economy if they don't have money to buy things. >>

you talked about what a difficult time it is to live be volatility, but if you make $30,000, it doesn't go that far, even if you get paid in very neat $575 a week increments. does it. >> no. i think they have emphasized. there's another form of inequality, but the way that they earn that income and some of i think what we are seeing is many of the people making decisions don't have any experience of what it is like. of trying to piece this together. and so they are making decisions without really any understanding of what that means for the workers. knew, we can solve that problem that doesn't necessarily say that 30,000-dollars is enough, but managing on $30,000 when you can budget, when

you have some expectation, as lindsay was saying when you know you are going to have that job, and get that paycheck the next week, is a lot easier to do it if you don't know putting those burdens does create this trap, that i think we are hearing about, that it becomes in any way that builds up a future, and leaves you exposed, when something inevitably goes wrong. >> we will have more inside story after this break, when we come back, at a time of slow economic growth, are the suffering of low wageworkers simply something to be born, or has social discussion taken us to a different point where the wider population might be willing to at least debate ways to strengthen the floor under family's

feet, stay with us.

houtzs lost, or mortgages underwater, overtime upon. raises tiny, yet many elected officials disparage calls for a higher minimum wage. momentum is even gathering for an eventual cut in payments from social security. still with us this time, tim ogden managing director of the u.s. financial diary i linda, author of hand to mouth, living in bootstrap america. and kim bo bo and author of wage theft in america. kim, you know, you talked earlier about the walton family, many are not convinced that inequality is a problem. they say look, we live in a marketplace, where the market mace rewards certain kind of labor,

and that's that. and we should make out decisions around that, both how you prepare for life in the workplace, and how you get educated and so on. there's a certain amount of this that is simply your fault. >> well, i don't agree with that. i think we have a societal responsibility. believe that it is our job to help our fellow native. we can do that through the society in a number of ways, indeed, we can raise the men mum wage, we can encouraging employers and support employers we can stop wage theft by strengthennenning enforcement, and we can make work pay, we can provide the supports that almost every other country in the world provides. such as paid six days for all workers. these are core things that we as a society

could do, that would help all workers in the country. >> tim ogden, do the people you surveyed have a lot of faith in the future? they are not so discouraged about both their own prospects and those of their family members. >> other surveys that have been done. is that when these families are really -- more than moving up the income ladder and would agree with what she is saying about a need to help give these families the tools. and we need to change that. >> linda, some of this has to do with whether you think what you are going through is transitional? is temporary, something you can work your way out

of, and if you hughes that hope, it gets hard tore do it, doesn't it. >> i think that's less the point, more the point you cannot run an economy or a society full of nothing but upper class white collar workers. if you do that, who is going to scrub the toilet whose is going to make the buss run, who is going to clean things and when you have those jobs when we recognize that those jobs are needed and valuable, and a hard day's work just as much as national in the office, the question p sos being how do we make people not janitors and how do we have janitors have a life that is valuable and worthwhile and just as valuable. so when we frame that question, the important thing is how do get everybody to be a c.e.o., how to make everybody's lives tolerable, because this is america. and that is what we do i wouldn't wayn't to for a second leave you with the idea that i think people should be ashamed of the work they do, they just want to be better compensated for it. >> sure, absolutely.

because every job is valuable, and every hour helps fuel the economy. >> from what you are saying the work they are even doing today is not being valued accordingly, are there effective tools to push back yes, we should raise the minimum wage, we should pass paid sick days we should support workers. and we should invest in companies that pay living wages and we should use our consumer dollars to support companies that pay people fairly, and frankly, avoided those who don't. >> what would you want to see down the road that would show you that things are progressing from where you measured it over the last two years. >> yeah, i think what we want to see is people being able to save some for the short term and long term, that they have the tools and policies to manage the situations they are in, and begin to

make the choices that will lead to happiness for their families. that they can feel a solid ground. >> and would more wage stability be a big down payment on letting that happen? a good first step you might say? i think absolutely. it isn't just wage stability, but it is also the policies and the products that allow people to run the lives the way they want them to run, so that they can invest in their future, and contribute overall, and not feeling like they are always running behind. >> timothy ogden, of u.s. financial diaries. kim bo bo interfaith worker just tis, great to talk to you all, thanks a lot. that brings us to the end of this edition, thank you for being with us, join us next time in washington, i am ray swarez.

>> this is al jazeera. >> welcome to the news hour. live from our headquarters in doha, coming up in the next 60 is minutes. a major victory for the japanese prime minister's ruling coalition. stepping down. haiti's prime minister resigns, after protests calling for him and the president to leave office. peru, paving the way for what is felt to b