be and whether god makes our laws. i am ray suarez, thanks for joining us for the "inside story." ♪ ♪ choice they have is to return to iraq and afghanistan where their death is almost guaranteed "america tonight"s sheila macvicar with a look at the shocking conditions facing some of the most loyal defenders of america. and making work pay. the high price facing low income workers. >> we are saying rite here in the united states -- right here

in the united states all kind of workers are sweated. an aspect of being sweated is being robbed of your wages. it's called wage theft - how employers are getting away with it the christopher putzel found it's happening all around us. thanks for joining us, i'm joie chen. making work pay. now, you wouldn't think that would be a problem, but across the country there has been a buzz since the "new york times" uncovered the short changing of manicurists in salons. this type of wage theft has been found in many other work places and cost workers $80 million. in new york governor como launched a clampdown on wage abuse. but christopher putzel uncovers the unpaid work of others. >> translation: i imagined the u.s. to be a free and democratic

country. i expected to see money everywhere. this man is a father and husband and came to new york in 2001 for what he hoped was a better life. >> translation: it's not like i imagined. like china, u.s. has its dark sides. there's a lot of unfairness. inequality. >> reporter: in 2006 he took a job as a driver with an independent taxi company, known as yes car. so in 2007 you were making about $500 a week, is that right. your pay was $500. how many days a week were you working. six days? >> yes. >> six days a week. >> yes. day. >> yes. >> reporter: do the maths. he was working many hours a week, earn $6.74. two years later yes car announced an increase in

so-called protection fees, bringing it down to $5.55, below the legal wage. that is lower. in 2009 the minimum wage is $7.25. that is - that is a big difference. it looks like you're owed a lot of money. >> yes. >> translation: after a while i wasn't making money and i was basically working for free. the little i made was not enough to make ends met. >> reporter: he was not alone. in 2009, he and 20 other drivers filed a lawsuit for wage theft, and said the opener got away with underpaying them for years, classifying them as independent contractors, instead of paying them as hourly workers. >>. the drivers cannot be called independent contractors, they are company employees with the

night to minimum wage and overtime. >> reporter: joanne moon is a director of the coalition for minimum wage. a lot of times thing sweat shots, and here in the united states all kinds of workers are sweated. one aspect of being sweated is being robbed of your wages. you can talk about raising the minimum wage to $20 an hour, $30 an hour. it will not be real unless the law is enforced. >> for the agency that is supposed to enforce the law, they are struggling to keep up. we are at the department of labour that received thousands of claims from employees saying employees stole wages from them. because the department is so backlogged it can take month,

years for the claims to be investigated. we wanted to speak to someone from the state. deputy secretary alphonso davids would only speak by capital. delayed. >> a practical reality of litigation is it takes time. i suspect the case you referenced is completely outside of the department of labour and in court. the only part of the process that the department of labour controls is the investigation statement. after they issue their determination, they have no control over the process. why, because an employer could appeal. >> translation: workers never win in court. employers have the money and can afford the best lawyers. bosses always win, workers have to take the abuse. >> reporter: we wanted to ask tony low, the owner of yes car about the wages. >> services. >> yes.

>> is tony low here. >> he no more here. >> does he work here. >> no, he doesn't. >> is there a manager i can speak with? >> one second. >> moments later, this man appears. he would only identify himself as wallace. who are you looking for? >> tony low. >> he's been out two or three years. >> had you sure. >> he's been gone for years. >> two or three years ago. >> reporter: i asked what his drivers are making. he wouldn't specify but said they are paid as contractors. >> we are a taxi cab, no one work for us. >> you classify them as drivers. >> yes. >> the department of labour says it's unaware of wage theft cases involving drivers working forriest car. we found two liftings for tony low.

selling the business is a common tactic to avoid wages. >> it's legal to shut down and open up another business. you just pay a few hundred dollars. there's not much risk involved actually, because the law allows them to do this and that, to hide and hide behind the subcontracting and franchise responsibility. the rick is little. that's why i think so many employees and businesses do it, rob workers. >> six years after pursuing yes cars, he has a new job. he makes enough to cover rent and support the family. he can't shake the feeling he's been robbed. do you regret states? >> reporter: america is not

heaven, if you were in china making a good living, i would tell you not to come here. america has its open oppression and abuses. it's hard to live here. >> reporter: what is the hardest part about taking care of your family? >> it's all for my family. it's my responsibility to take care of the family. >> reporter: did you think it would be this difficult? > no. life in china was better "america tonight"s christopher putzel joins us. now, you know, following up on all this, it seems from your reporting that this is happening in all kind of industries, all kind of work places, yet it took the investigation into the situation with manicurists in

new york, that has provoked so much reaction over the country. >> sure. a lot of women relate to getting their nails done in the salon. it's no surprise that there was a lot of pressure to act swiftly, which he did. there'll be a multitask force in place to inspect salons, and make sure that everyone is complying with labour laws, and what is important is that workers know their rights. there are so many thousands of people working, especially here in new york city, that don't speak english, are doing menial labour jobs and being taken advantage of governor cuomo cutting in place another ask force to take up an issue that has been approached before with previous task forces. seems like it will take more than that to get the job done, for a man that has been fighting this for years. >> that's true.

that's the big challenge. the new york department of labour has 14,000 backlog cases, down from 17,000. it's a tremendous amount of cases that are being reviewed and trying to get the money back to people. it's a lot of work. the governor announced last year that they recovered 30 million in stolen wages and returned the money to two workers. it's a huge uphill battle and a big challenge ahead. really, as you said. it's a lot to do with education and bringing forward the information to workers. you can say it's a minimum wage, but if no one knows that's what they are supposed to get. what good is a minimum wage. >> that is true. that's why what is important is that workers become educated about what their rites are. a lot of these people do not speak english, they are easily taken advantage of, do not know

their right, and when you have that perfect storm, people will take advantage of it. >> "america tonight"s christopher putzel for us. next - hitting the breaks. on demand car services like uber and the step some communities halt. >> later conditions so bad they'd rather return to a war zone. veterans of a fight to save afghanistan. sheila macvicar on why more isn't done to protect them a sweet deal sinks, why florida lawmakers soured on a deal that could be key to saving the everglades. that's on aljazeera.com/americatonight.

in our fast-forward segment - viva los angeles 41 million tourists pouring into sin city, many had cabs to services. then uber came in, and the competition is trying to slam on the breaks. >> reporter: not one now taxi

company has opened in las vegas since 1991. if mr swarts has his way, uber will not. >> uber is unsafe. >> swarts owns three cab companies, 20% of the market share, and says uber doesn't have to comply with the same rules he must, involving things like car maintenance, background checks. uber likes to say that they are a technology company, rather than a transportation company. do you buy na? >> i don't guy that at all. they are a transportation company. they should comply with the same set of rules. uber came into the state and violated the law. >> reporter: uber is used to getting its way, legal or not. it's rolled into 41 states, 300 cities world wide. many arguing counter laws do in the apply. why? we tried to find out. >> here it's people using personal vehicles, an

application to connect with people, and maybe 10 hours a week they use it to give you or someone else a ride. >> the fight over aboriginerr- uber has mooedved to capitol hill. >> reporter: how much lobbyists and consultants do you have working on the issue? >> i think it's about 10. we have to compete with uber, which is 16. fast-forward to a new roll of dice for uber, speeding through the legislature clearing the way for uber and other ride-share services. drivers face background checks, security and have to pay a tax. next, a lukewarm welcome - they risked all to serve our soldiers, but the veterans from the we are in afghanistan found few benefits after their services. we look into why.

also - tapped in and fired up. wednesday on "america tonight". who is targeted by the n.s.a. phone tracking and why it may be a warping to you, too. >> are you being paranoid? >> no, i'm not paranoid. i'm a mid western girl from the middle of iowa michael oku on what the n.s.a. is recording and how it's

morning 40 people are killed in a bus attack in the pakistani city of scratchkarachi. ♪ ♪ hello, i am jane dutton you are watching al jazerra live from doha. also ahead the u.n. security council calls for peace talks in yemen as a five-day ceasefire comes in to effect. north career's' defense minister section cute today disrespecting leading kim jong-un. plus. >> reporter: i am rob reynolds on the navajo nation in arizona whereby deet i can is ram pant