In America, the top one-tenth of one percent of earners makes about the same money per year collectively as the millions of Americans in the bottom 50 percent combined. This is putting a tight squeeze on the middle class, while leaving millions of others in the cold. David Brancaccio talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning financial reporter David Cay Johnston, as well as author and advocate Beth Shuman, about the state of our country's vast income divide and how it's hurting those just trying to make ends meet.

The NOW Web site at www.pbs.org/now will feature book excerpts from both authors and stories of low-wage earners fighting for income equality.