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right now everywhere i go, ray, i have the same conversation with employers. i'm bullish with the future i want to grow my business and one of my biggest challenges is too many people walking in the door don't have the skills to do the i.t. job or the job in advanced manufacturing and this is what we have to work on. to make sure that everybody who wants to punch their ticket to the middle clats has th class hl to do that. >> at the lower end of the salary range, we have demanding

higher wages, municipalities, raiding the minimum wage, that's one end of the fight. we can hardly get a raise and their own bosses point to workers, in the developer world and say that's your competition. i'm not going to pay you more money, see you tomorrow. >> i think what we're beginning to see is some progress, really at both ends, 7 million people got a raise as a result of state and local actions, we're going to continue to fight like heck at the federal level and in the meantime, we're work with all these local people at state and local government who are making those efforts and very successful efforts to raise wages. at the other end of the scale, what we need to do, and i've spent a lot of time talking to employers on silicon valley, employers in manufacturing large

small business he alike, i met the ceo of heb grocery store recently, i was in austin, 80,000 strong. big company, biggest grocery store in texas. their competition, their main competition is walmart and they are beating walmart. at the same time they are paying their workers above the minimum wage, those managers are making 50, $60,000 ray because they understand it is a false choice to suggest as your question suggested, do we either take care of our workers or do we take care of our bottom line? heb, they understand that when you treat your workers well, that works for bottom line and works for your customer and it works for everyone. it creates that shared prosperity. >> we're talking with u.s. labor secretary thomas perez. what's really happening in workplaces and to paychecks? a cuff half

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>> half a million fields will lie fallow. >> if we had another year of this severe drought, i'd say all bets are off. >> you're watching "inside story." i'm ray suarez.

the labor market has been tightening but wages haven't risen much as the unemployment rate last fallen sharply. if you are in the workplace now do you think you're in a position to ask for a raise? if you hire and negotiate can you risk losing a experienced employee, we always refer to the job market. how is that market working? the u.s. secretary of labor thunderstorms pere throams perethroms perez thomas perez is with me. are there enough protection for workers in that type of contingent workforce? >> it's important to know that

the on demand job market, people in the construction industry, went from job to job and continual to do that. in the home health industry you go from job to job and you continue to do that. and so one thing that strikes me when i talk about the on demand economy is we need to make sure we understand the data on this. because there is at least one recent estimate showing that the percentage of people in this workforce is about 1%. and so while there's growth in this area, you look at the growth in other legacy sectors and it's pretty large as well. and so i appreciate the need for flexibility. what we need to do, and the conversation we're having is, we're about to embark on a conference at the department of labor ton future of work. and the future of work is what does the social compact 2.0 look like? how do you ensure that workers

can make ends meet? that workers have that safety complete? because all too many workers, whether they've been working at a long standing legacy company or whether they're working in the on demand economy now they don't have that safety net. they're one accident away from poverty. >> one big change was supposed to be the affordable care act, where people who were imprisoned in jobs because they couldn't afford to change for fear of losing their insurance or having a preexisting condition ding them, supposedly that was going to free workers and make it easier to move from place to place or get your own insurance if you need it. do we have any data to show that's true? >> the irony ray is the folks who want to repeal the affordable care act , the irony of that is that the unlock of job lock which we've seen, and one of my best friends is someone who has two kids with

disabilities, he was working in his job, because he needed the health benefits. he lived in massachusetts. he got romney care and as a result he was able to work less and make more as a consultant because he needed to be with his family, he had that access. the irony is people who want to repeal obamacare, have no appreciation in the on demand economy in the world where people want to have in some cases more flexibility to deal with family or other circumstances, a linchpin of enabling people to have that safety net is among other things the affordable care act. >> do we know yet whether it's going to be a big part of our future workforce? will people have to think about work, what it is, how it's structured in a different way when, in effect, your boss is whoever's hiring me today? >> well, i think it's important

to understand that change is not something new. you know a hundred years ago, actually over 100 years ago, we were having this conversation in the united states during the industrial revolution. there was a case that went to the supreme court in the early twi 20th century, lo lockner, about standards in the bakery industry. the question was in this new economy, the economy of industrialization, what does the social compact look like? does an employer have the right to employ someone for 80 hours a week with no benefits, no worker protections, et cetera? and so these questions that we're asking appropriately in the on demand economy are not new. and i think what we saw over 100 years ago was the result of fierce debate, the social compact that emerged was that if you are going to work more than a 40 hour week you should get paid extra.

there should be safety protections. if you lose your job through no fault of your own there ought to be that safety net. and as we innovate -- >> but as it's dropping now do we have that same ethos? do they ask the same questions? >> the strength of the middle class, the strength of the union movement you strongly point out go hand in hand. led the union movement and the decades of prosperity that we saw in the aftermath of world war ii were also, there's been a frontal assault, let's make no mistake about it, a very conscious assault by those on the far right of working people. they want to remove people's voice they want to take all the leverage from works and give it to employers. and that is a challenge. and as we talk about the on demand economy it is part of

that broader conversation about the social compact 2.0. i believe and there's a strong evidence base to support my belief that when workers have a voice in the workplace, whether it's through collective bargaining, whether it's through employee stock ownership, whether it's through what procter and gamble did years ago through profit sharing, through workers councils, we want to continue to innovate but inclusive innovative. works for workers works for bottom line. >> i'm talking to labor secretary thomas perez. one of the reasons the job rate is so lo is people have simply left the labor force. a cub half empty?

>> welcome back to "inside story." i'm ray suarez. one of the commonly heard critiques of the low jobless rate is that millions fewer americans are in the regular workforce. just over 62% of american adults are working. down smart ly from over 67% in the last decade. what's happening. the rate was once much lower but that was because so many women were not working regularly. in the modern era are millions of americans willing to work, find themselves unable to work and leaving the labor market? with me for today's program is labor secretary thomas perez. usually a sign of people's own optimism own sentiment about their chances in the workplace. how should we read the 5% decline? in a labor market as large as

ours it is a lot of people. >> the aging of the baby boomers, that's the reason, a large consensus for the decrease in labor force. the first thing we can do is to pass a federal paid leave law. because you know, we're the only industrialized planet on the earth that doesn't have some form of paid leave. and we know from the experience of the other countries that when you make it easier for dual career families to enter the workplace, after they have a child, you increase labor force participation. one data point. the united states and canada, the participation rate of women in 2000, was equal. now canada's about eight points, percentage points higher than us. and just if we had kept pace with canada and they have very progressive paid leave policies for women, higher. as a result of

that, if we'd kept pace we would have 5.5 million more people to make silicon valley, the benefits of the remarkable talents this these women bring to -- >> let's clarify what you mean by paid leave. >> sure. >> is this going to be a government benefit that when you leave the workplace you're getting a portion of that paycheck substitution from a public entity or is this your boss saying you're not going to be here but i'm going to have to pay you while you're not here and keep your job open? >> let's look at what the rest of the world does. and one thing that the viewers should understand is, the united states is the only country where paid leave has become a partisan issue. the conservative ruling parties in australia, germany, the form he conservative ruling party in canada this was part of their dna. germany, you give birth you get 14 weeks off by federal law. and it's paid. and the studies show that that

bonding time is indispensable for both parent and child. and it enables people to stay in the workplace. and so the question always gets asked, well you know how much does it cost? well i think the more important question right now is the cost of doing nothing. we are losing literally hundreds of billions of dollars that could be in the social security trust fund that could be in the medicare trust fund and we are losing the tarnlt losing talents of remarkable men and women who want to stay home and can't do so. to say the labor participation rate isn't high enough, put your money where your mouth is, pass paid leave. that is an overwhelming winner. >> if the administration were to go out into the world tomorrow and say this is what we want, we want a bill enabling this you would be mobbed by employers organizations, the national

association ever of manufacturers, this is going to raise my cost of being an employer and i'm not sure i see the benefit of it, it's a charge to my bottom line that i can't abide. >> and we would have so many other businesses saying just the opposite. i was with the chamber of commerce in vermont, they convened a meeting on paid leave. there was an employer there who provides paid leave for his workers and he has a number of workers who are dual career workers, every time their kid is sick it's their employee who takes the time off because their spouse doesn't have paid leave. playing by the rules, smart employers whether it's large employers like microsoft or smaller employers whom i meet across the country they understand that paid leave is a sound investment and that we need to have federal policy and we've seen from what california did ten years ago that you can

do this. and all the parade of horribles, we hear the same calamity howling when it's the same, paid leave or preliminary wage. and when we hear the people talk about or criticize this president for failing to raise the labor force participation rate, that's plain hypocritical. we know what to do, give families an opportunity to spend the most important time when that child is born with that child. >> thomas perez is the u.s. secretary of labor, thanks for joining us. >> it's a pleasure. >> i'll be back with a final thought on the world of work, what we ask of it and what it demands from us. send us your story @ajinsidestoryam, or follow me or get in touch @raysuareznews or visit our facebook page,

share your thoughts on the mayor american workforce, we'd love to hear from you. >> welcome to al jazeera america. more reporters, more stories, more perspective. >> from our award-winning news teams across america and beyond. >> we've got global news covered.

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>> once on labor day i was on the radio and talking about work. and closed my program by saying, work ennobles life. i had seen across my whole life and working career in the u.s. and around the world that people took great pride in the fact that they worked. contributed to their own sustenance and that of their families. even in jobs a lot of people might find disgusted and demeaning. i was unprepared by the blow back what i thought was a remarkable idea. people thought i was talking about exploitive employers rather than the workers from ground up. but i've seen the crushing weight squeeze the life out of people. not just economically, it does something terrible to people's spirits too. i've seen how lack of respect lat of compassion, knocks workers who say they want to do a good job off their bearings.

force he them to figure where that quality highly valid in the workplace loyalty was a one way street at all, demanded by employers and not always given. no wonder in face of a tightening labor market in the face of a new and flexible world of work workers still say they're not feeling any better about their own prospects and those of their neighbors. when they are more productive they fatten the compensation of executives way up the food chain, and too rarely see raises that put them ahead of inflation. and they don't just feel that way out of a sense of grievance. they feel it because it's measurable and true. it will be interesting to see how much that unease fuels the coming political season. i'm ray suarez. that's the "inside story."

we meet the armed vigilante's in burundi who say they're protecting their neighborhoods from random attacks. this is al jazeera live from doha. also ahead on the program. >> we are now investigating these horrific acts as an act of terrorism the f.b.i. however says there no evidence that the couple behind the mass shooting in california were instructed by i.s.i.l. raising the alarm, the u.n. says