in an america where some of the country is so prosperous, stories of struggle and resilience, from people who want you to know how hard they're working to hold on to their american dreams. my reality, a hidden america starts now. >> good evening, i'm diane sawyer. we traveled the country to start reporting on wages, talking to workers saying the american dream is out of reach, and the american media is not paying any attention to their story. when we

who would emerge in our election, but in seven days, there will be a new president who has promised these workers better wages and jobs, and we'll be following what happens. tonight, we begin with a message from the people we met. this is the reality of their lives. a year and a half ago, we posted some questions, starting with this one. what is the american dream? so many of you remembered it as a parent with a job, a modest house, maybe a family vacation and the kind of education that would give the children even more opportunity in life. i remember that dream, too. my parents grew up on farms in southern kentucky. this was the house where we lived until i was 4. they rented it when my mom was a schoolteacher, my dad in the navy, so thanks to the gi bill, they got a house in a subdivision, a family street, with picnics, and 4th of july parades.

but so many of you also wrote us about the stress and the struggle of trying to reach that dream today. >> i'm actually having to work three jobs and my husband works three jobs as well and we're still not able to get ahead. >> back when i was a kid, my father worked, my mother stayed home. my father's income was enough for us to survive. >> when i was growing up it was achievable. the white picket fence, being able to own your own home. >> i feel like we can never catch up. >> it's like you're stuck. >> you got to get the millionaires and the billionaires in washington to start worrying about the working class people. because they want to -- >> you think they don't know, don't care? >> i think they forgot. >> reporter: two facts. over the past 30 years, the u.s. economy has been growing. but those at the top are getting more and more of the money. the top 20% have 14 times the wealth of the rest, the 80%. the largest inequality on record. and for the first time in half a

young people in the middle class are not earning as much their parents did. which is why long ago we started driving around the country. this is a stop at wilkes-barre, pennsylvania, this fire station. pennsylvania's bravest. i learn that 40 out of 68 full-time firefighters here have to work at least a second job. though they say a generation ago, a firefighting income could support your family. but firefighter chris smith simply will not give up on that dream for his children. chris smith has three jobs he works on rotation. his schedule is a rubik's cube. >> three nights of february, i'll get to sleep in my own bed. every other night, i'm working somewhere overnight. >> reporter: we're there as he gets ready to go to work at his first job. firefighter on the night shift. >> i have to be clean shaven for the fire department so our masks will form a good seal on our face. spare yun forp uniforms for every job i'm going to.

>> reporter: job number one at the firehouse. 15 straight hours. >> we are heading out on a call. possible structure fire. >> reporter: job number two is as a trained paramedic. some days chris goes directly there to work eight hours. job number three, five hours as a paramedic in a different town. he races off to help a truck worker who was unloading gravel. >> vehicle roll over with injuries. >> reporter: as he heads home to sleep, behind the closed doors of his house, chris fas a different kind of stress and a lot of love. >> hello! >> daddy! >> hi, buddy! how was your day? let's go make macaroni. >> reporter: his wife, lauren, baby ella, and toddler little christopher. >> how many calls you had? >> how many calls? two calls. >> just two? >> dad, you always save people who are hurt. >> i save people who are hurt. >> did you see the gas bill?

>> reporter: they bought a house in a neighborhood where the public schools are good. a 30-year mortgage. they're also paying down big student loans. >> i'm going to get ready for work. i love you. >> reporter: to save money, they tell us that they bought used furniture online. they only eat out once a year on their anniversary. they buy toothpaste anrazors with coupons. and chris shows us the one pair of shoes he uses for going out, like to church. they are ten years old. >> i can't tell you the last time my wife and i bought anything for ourselves. >> reporter: and then, just when the smiths thought they might be able to come in on budget, two surprises. his health care premiums were jacked up nearly 30% in the past two years. and a storm flooded their backyard, costing thousands. at the end of each month, how much do you have left? >> really nothing. >> he's such a good guy and he works so hard and the job that he does do is so incredibly hard and so incredibly scary. >> reporter: chris looks longingly at the lives

20% of americans who take up so much more of america's wealth. >> i want more time with my children, with my family. you're never going to get that back. >> reporter: the people who can afford vacations and savings accounts, security for the future. >> they spend more in one day than we probably spend in a month. their bonuses are more than we make in years. it's a totally different world that they live in. >> reporter: and so many of you wrote us that it doesn't seem most americans know about the reality of a middle class life. we went out on the street to ask some random questions. what percentage of americans today are in the middle class? >> 85%. >> reporter: the truth, just 50%. and what is the income for a family of five just making it through the middle class door? >> this is my answer. >> reporter: that income actually starts at $54,000. so we head to maryland where we meet an incredibly spunky woman named tracey coleman.

to make her own laundry detergent because it saves her $10 a month. tracey's husband once had a union job in manufacturing, but it went away, so he spends long days installing air conditioners. she works as an aide at the local elementary school. she worries that people blame working families for their situation. >> something's wrong with you. you're doing something wrong. we're working, it's not like we're not working. it's just not enough money to support you. >> reporter: her big splurge, she says, mcdonald's, maybe once a month. >> i'm not gonna lie. i've said to myself, i should not have spent that $18 at mcdonald's. i could have put it into gas tank. but i want my kids to be able to enjoy life. >> reporter: she has two children. a daughter named abby and a son named colton who is just 7 years old, but already reads at a sixth-grade level. he and his best friend, caleb,

have questions about her budget. >> how much money do you get? >> what i'm gonna bring home is gonna be $470 about. >> what? what? >> but listen to this. our house costs $800 a month. i've got to work two weeks at least just to pay off the mortgage. gas and electric's another $200 a month, so that's another half a week. i have to pay for our car, that's $200. so now i have to buy food. soup, shampoo. >> soda. >> toothpaste. so we're left with maybe $50 extra. well, guess what? what if we want to go to mcdonald's once? >> that's like zero dollars. >> yeah, that's like zero dollars that we can save. so how are we supposed to save? >> by -- i don't know. >> reporter: tracey hears all those pundits on tv saying that people just need to get a college degree. >> a college education. >> it actually increases your earning potential by 20%.

>> reporter: so every day tracey tries to power up her failing computer, to do homework for an online college course. fighting against the exhaustion and the stress in her life. and if you doubt what it means for someone like tracey to get a little break, a different job opens up at the elementary school. it's still entry level. a parent teacher coordinator, but with extra pay. >> i got this job. i got this job! >> reporter: one moment to savor on her family's difficult climb into the american dream. and when we come back, we set out to ask why the cost of housing has soared so high in america. are you living in a truly middle-class home? and you'll meet a man who has spent the past ten years commuting four hours to work, four hours back, every day. and something pretty amazing happens.

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♪ ♪ oh the way glen miller played ♪ >> reporter: return with us to the sights and sounds of archie bunker's neighborhood. 30 years ago, the television symbol of living in the american working class. >> open up the window and holler.

house today. the blue one on the right. we took a walk there with ralph mclaughlin, chief economist for trulia, a real estate website. >> those homes were built for middle class americans. they were built for teachers, they were built for firefighters, they were built for nurses. and those types of people can't afford those homes anymore. i see a middle class neighborhood that is no longer affordable to the middle class. >> reporter: kathy masi moved into archie's neighborhood 40 years ago. her husband was a truck driver. she showed us who's buying these houses now. >> he is a banker, he's a ceo. >> reporter: she says in 1978, her house cost almost $60,000. today, it's valued at $800,000. and these soaring house prices are not just in new york, its happening in job markets across the country. we wondered about that other tv home. roseanne's house in evansville,

indiana. >> they're gone. change the locks. >> reporter: her house would cost $129,000 but roseanne's fictional job on tv was in manufacturing. but in evansville the number of manufacturing jobs is shrinking. so home ownership in america is, where is it now? >> home ownership in america is at a 50-year low. think about that, diane. how many things can you think of today are at 50-year lows? >> reporter: so americans are right that something has changed. that in the 1970s, a father on one salary could afford the average new home being built then. it was 1,700 square feet, two-thirds had fewer than three bedrooms. more than one bathroom was a luxury. and the cost, $191,000. but today, the average new house is $360,000 and the home has

grown by 60%, 2,600 square feet. four bedrooms, not to mention multiple bathrooms as builders keep catering more and more to upscale incomes. >> i love this town, i love this community. >> reporter: this is mauritia savilla. >> i didn't expect to get emotional. i can't take my daughter to the dentist. >> reporter: she's one of the people caught in the vicious choice between affording where you live and affording your life. >> i think i grew up middle class. my parents have four children, they own their home. i didn't imagine i would still be without any idea of how i would get into a house at this point. >> reporter: her husband is a microbiologist in a lab. they rent a small two-bedroom apartment in california. when we meet her, she's taken on four part-time jobs. >> now i do dog walking and house sitting.

>> reporter: college savings for the girls? >> nothing. >> teachers can't afford to live here. blue collar workers that we depend on in this town that we have to depend on, they have to leave. >> i've worked in biotech for 20 years, i make 6 figures, and i can't give my kids what i grew up with. >> with two incomes it's difficult. we can live here, but can we thrive here? >> reporter: so you have to live in a place you can't afford to live to keep the job you want to keep. it's a trap. >> right. >> reporter: it says a lot that almost everyone with me at this table over a year and a half ago is gone. they had to leave their home. we gathered a panel of experts to help guide us tonight.

all of them said they had to leave. darren walker gives credit for his life to head start. >> once upon a time, the gap between the rich and the poor was not a large one and everybody on one side of it had hopes of getting to the other. two things have happened. one, that gap has become extraordinarily large and two, the ability to cross it has become extraordinarily rare. it's a game of chutes and ladders that has become all chutes and very few ladders. >> reporter: as for the costs of housing, the experts say its all about political leadership. and zoning laws. >> people who are entrenched interests have made it impossible to build low-income housing, any housing. >> the solutions are within our

reach, the question is, do we have the will to implement. >> reporter: in the meantime the outward migrations has created a group of americans called super commuters. there's one light on up there. is it time yet? we travel to meet ronnie thomas, who's just getting up. he makes an 80-mile commute, and can't afford a car. every day makes an 80-mile commute to his job but he can't afford a car. do you ever get up in the morning and think i just can't do i

way, i have responsibilities. i have a wife, i have kids. these are my driving force. >> reporter: we go with him. first by bike five miles to the train, then 66 miles by train to the bus. it takes another 30 minutes by bus until he's dropped at his workplace. ronnie works at stanford university unloading the boxes of food they serve students on campus. tuition at stanford is $45,000. ronnie wanted to take computer classes, but the long commute makes that impossible. so, every day, he walks his bike past the students just waking up. so, when you see all those kids at the community, with so many advantages? >> doesn't bother me in the least. i'm going to do what ronnie needs to

>> reporter: back on the bike, bus, the train, hoping those eight hours will carry him to a better life for his children. >> i'm going to come to that sink like i do every morning, look in the mirror, remind myself what your focus is, and keep on trying. >> reporter: and we have some great news from ronnie tonight. he saved and saved and has just sent us this picture of the house he's managed to buy. now, he's saving for a car. next, the reality behind that smile of a fast food workers. >> we haven't been to a movie since "the matrix." >> we'll be right back. you might miss your rent. aflac! aww i just moved out. bummer man.

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in a changing america, so many of the new jobs will be in retail, and the service industry. but these jobs will pay under $12 an hour, and 36 million people already know the reality of that. we head out into the middle of the country, to kansas city, where we meet terrence wise. he's another american who

hard work. he leaves home at 5:30 and returns 16 hours later. he records the beginning of his day. >> just like everybody in america, heading to work. trying to take care of my family. morning. how you doing? >> reporter: when we meet him, he has two jobs, at fast food franchises. one at burger king, a second at mcdonald's. it takes him eight buses to commute to and from his work. >> there's three more buses to go. thank you. >> reporter: and there's a big change in the fast food worker. back in 1980, the majority of fast food workers were teenagers but today, 75% of these workers are in their 20s or older, a third of them with children. >> the american people, some may look and say, "it's something you didn't do right." and they think, "okay, well, you should've stayed in school or you should've did this." i'm working. i have a family. we're at where we're at in this life right now. >> reporter: this wasn't the

he says he was once a smart kid in high school dreaming of the university of south carolina, but he had to help with family bills. >> i've been at burger king, what, 11 years now. $8 an hour after 11 years of service. >> reporter: and yet after all those buses, all those hours, he says no vacation time, no benefits. >> you go into these mcdonald's or any restaurant, and you notice the smiling faces. but when he leaves, he goes home to little food of his own or no light or no water. >> reporter: terrence points out his hours can be reduced so his income isn't guaranteed. one of the hardest things, watching the leftover food at the end of the shift. what do they do with the food that is left over at the end of the day? >> where i work, the food is thrown away. >> reporter: two years ago, a worker at another store posted this on youtube. >> you see, this is all the food we have left at the end of the night that we have to throw away. >> reporter: when we meet terrence, he has already become a passionate advocate at the center of the national movement called "fight for 15," arguing for an increase in the federal minimum wage, from $7.25.

>> i know with $15 an hour, if it started tomorrow, i would only have to work one job. then i would have an opportunity to go to work and then go to school. >> when you're paying people $7.25, you are fundamentally saying to them, "your labor doesn't really matter here." >> reporter: our experts all agree that something has to be done for low wage americans, but they disagree what's best. arthur brooks of the conservative american enterprise institute says some kind of extra tax credit would be best. >> we have wage subsidies. a really wonky thing called the earned income tax credit. >> reporter: he worries when the government dictates wages, companies cut jobs. but not everyone at this table agrees that will happen. >> we shouldn't require their employer to do that, because that's what will lead to the layoffs. and that's a really dangerous thing to do. >> this is the bogeyman we've always heard about. >> and all we do is protect people like us, sitting around a table. that's who gets protected. >> reporter: but you know the argument they make, that they'll just have fewer jobs. >> that's an argument they'll make, and that we know that they

have the money to pay workers a living wage. if you pay your workers, we're not going to sit on our money, we'll put it back into the economy. >> reporter: the top companies in the fast food industry made combined profits of billion in 2015, while one study shows 52% of all their employees are getting some form of public assistance. is this a way taxpayers are subsidizing the industry? >> nobody wants to get food stamps. i want to go in and pull out my cash and buy my food and have insurance through my job. >> reporter: and again, he says, a little more makes so much difference. >> to go see a movie. i haven't been to the movies since "the matrix," and i don't know if you know how old that movie is. yup, this is our stop. >> reporter: and there's another changing face of low-wage workers in america. 60% of those who make less than $10 an hour are now women, like kim thomas, who works up to 120 hours a week in home

health care. and because so many of these women and other low-wage workers have families of their own to support, we found a new growth industry in america. >> mama. mama. >> reporter: overnight childcare. >> we have like about 50 children sometimes at night. most of our parents work at walmart. they work at fast foods. they work at the warehouses. they work at hospitals and they also work at cleaning buildings at night. >> reporter: this single mother works an overnight shift at taco bell. >> mommy, i'm sleepy. >> you got to lie down, babe. i'm sorry. >> reporter: we asked mcdonald's for a comment, and they said their independent franchises make their own decisions about wages and throwing

as of tonight, we haven't heard back from burger king. and we wanted to show you something else we learned that was surprising in the midwest. we found some low-wage workers in some very surprising places, college professors. we stopped by the campus of washington university, tuitions nearly $49,000 a year. erik and dustin are adjunct professors teaching a heavy load at pay, they say, that don't add up to a living income. and is that enough for you to build a future on here? >> no, i mean, it's not enough to build a present on. >> reporter: one study shows a quarter of part-time college professors are paid so little, they're on public assistance. >> oh, we have friends on food stamps, we have friends -- >> reporter: teaching here? >> teaching multiple classes. >> the taxpayers subsidize what our employer won't. >> reporter: we ask washington university for a comment. they told us after our visit a year and a half ago, they reached a new agreement with the union representing the adjuncts. they say they pay part-time professors more than most

professors have other jobs. >> i love my job, but this is unsustainable. i can't afford to teach anymore. next, those golden companies with the golden workers. do they see the people in the shadows who get them to the office? where you're going... ♪ it still matters how you get there. ♪ the lexus line of luxury suvs. giving you the power to make your own way. ♪ around here we do things differently. some other companies peel with chemicals like lye, but we peel our tomatoes with flashsteam from simple hot water. we like it this way. wouldn't change a thing. hunt's. it's good to be different.

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>> reporter: there has always been income inequality in america. but as we said, today it's more extreme. take silicon valley, the high-tech companies with the golden names. where employees get free food, any kind, as much as they want. free dry cleaning, gyms on site and right there all around them thousands of other people also working very hard in the shadows. tl dl -- there, amid all the wealth, we heard about the drivers of the shuttle buses. when we began our report, we found drivers sleeping in the parking lot. they go to work at six in the morning, but have to wait for hours without pay in the middle of the day until they take employees home. napping in their cars at a depot with portable toilets. >> three outhouses out there is

if i was a woman i would never use them, for a man it's different if you're just doing number one. >> 35 to 40 bus drivers are here. people are sleeping all over here in their cars. it's just awful when you park inside and you have drivers covering their cars with blankets and towels. >> it's two beds for women, two beds for men. that's not enough. you seen how many buses just came through here. >> reporter: these drivers are what's called contract employees. working for companies who provide them to the high-tech industry. when we met them, they had few benefits, little vacation, no paid holidays. >> my name is terrence rollins. i'm a driver. i love my job. my age is 51. i get up at 3:00 a.m., i make it home about 11:00, 10:00 at night, i have to take care of my family. >> if people have to migrate like "the grapes of wrath," if people have to migrate a great difference to find work and comfort, then there's an issue

>> reporter: at that time one of drivers ferrying apple employees to their campus was scott peebles. he was trying to save money for a rental apartment someplace nearby. but at the time was living in his car using an inflatable mattress. >> i have the air pump right here, and i just turn the ignition switch on to accessory. and then i would pump up the -- it always needs air. i have my blanket here in case it gets cold and i put the visor in the front so it blocks out some of the light. i mean, if people would know this, if corporations or businesses they work for, they would probably be aghast that their employees were living in a car or van. >> he used to be one of the high-tech employees, and wrote a kind of

>> i take off my glasses. put the cover on. and then i just close this door and say good night. >> we're a company's ambassador, we're welcoming all their customers, we treat their employees well. >> when i first started, there were paid holidays, a lot of times you got bonuses. some of them, it's like a regular job, it's just that you're a contract worker. you were treated like one of the gang. >> reporter: but now? >> no more vacations, or paid sick time.

>> reporter: and because these are contract employees, do the people who work in the buildings know? >> i'm sure they don't. i'm pretty sure they don't. >> reporter: do you think they care? >> i'm pretty sure they do. >> the service worker is just a replaceable cog in the machine, who keeps it going, but aren't part of the cult, the dream, or vision of that company. >> reporter: we saw the parallel lives. near luxury houses, trailers parked in the streets. service employees living so differently from the people they serve. irma alvarado, a legal resident working in this country for decades. >> hi, i'm diane. it's very nice to meet you. are you irma? it's so nice to see you. >> reporter: irma, 62, is a contract employee who's spent 26 years cleaning restrooms and offices at visa.

she says for the first time ever, she got a card with $25. $25 dollars after 26 years? you're smiling. is that how you feel? >> no. >> reporter: irma's grandson, who has no put to place his clothes in their crowded house tells us his american dream. >> i would have a big bed and i would have a drawer to put all my clothes. >> reporter: you'd like to have a drawer? just one drawer? how many drawers? ten drawers. our experts say companies can cut costs by using contract employees. if anything, the practice is growing. the challenge, how to grow together. >> one of the problems with this is, in each link down that chain, the pressures grow to lower labor costs. >> i am confident that our economy will grow. the question is, will it yield

an america with shared prosperity? >> reporter: and a moment for a footnote from our travels. we ran into a mother and daughter who clean the bathrooms at the detroit airport. >> this is linda. i see people living. where do they get the money from? >> reporter: they told us they too would like to send a message. and it's not about money. it's about something simple. >> we go into restrooms and we clean them. we have to clean toilets. we have to wipe down stainless steel. and no one even says thank you. >> reporter: a lot has changed since we first reported from that parking lot in silicon valley. the bus drivers voted to unionize. there was publicity about low wages and few benefits. so facebook c.o.o. sheryl

sandberg said they should have higher salaries for the contract employees and 15 days of paid time off. apple and google followed suit. drivers we met in the parking lot say it's made a huge difference. scott peebles, that man who was once living in his car, has now rented an apartment. when we return, donating blood plasma just to buy his daughter a birthday present. next. everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪ [bullfighting music] [burke] billy-goat ruffians. seen it. covered it. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

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once again, diane sawyer, with my reality a

>> reporter: as we traveled across america, we wondered about some people we saw in the shadows of the morning. every day, 97,000 people will begin to take their place in a line. waiting to have a needle put in their arms for up to two hours. this is a transaction for money. there are 500 plasma centers in the u.s. and almost all are foreign owned. they extract plasma from this blood to make drugs that help treat leukemia, and for transplant patients. and these companies have turned the united states into what has been called the opec of plasma, american donors providing 94% of the paid plasma used around the world. they are a kind of branded army, not of addicts, but people, including full-time workers who are just unable to make ends meet. >> i donate specifically for the money because i work a minimum wage job. as a cashier and a stocker.

>> basically it's for bills, make ends meet. >> reporter: these donors are paid about $30 to $40 each visit. it is a $19.7 billion industry and growing. do you work part time or full time? >> full time. i'm married with two kids, so anything you can do for a little bit of extra cash. >> donating is easier than you might think. simply relax, watch tv, or enjoy our free wi-fi in a clean and friendly environment. >> right arm, i use friday. other i use sunday. i switch up every time. and it's a 21-gauge needle, so it's pretty thick. >> reporter: when we first meet a donor named william harris, he works full time at burger king. some nights when the shelter is full, he sleeps in a storage closet. his room is a chair, surrounded by spiders. by his side, a well-read self help book about success. how you get ahead in america. >> i love that book.

>> reporter: and you still believe that hard work is gonna get you there? >> yes, no other way. >> reporter: so why is it that these foreign companies recruit their donors in the united states? we learned that most of their home countries have banned the practice of paying money for plasma. there's one more person we met walking to give plasma twice a week. his name is gaylord cade. >> you're actually helping somebody else out too. >> reporter: when we meet him, he is working two jobs, one at a grocery, one in fast food, but says he's donating because his daughter has a birthday. he needs $7.50 to buy a bathing suit, and money for a cake. he doesn't want his kids to know how he's getting it. >> i try to take off my bandage before i get home. >> reporter: we went to the apartment unit he is renting. we met his 6-year-old son eric who tells us how he feels about the dad working so hard to support their family. >> a giant proud, where the

giant's head is all the way to outer space and in heaven, past heaven, and giant, giant, giant, giant, giant. i'm trying to say it a lot. my daddy working on getting a car. >> reporter: gaylord, who has had a tough life growing up, says he knows there are a lot of people who have a lot more than he does. >> you work 40 hours a week, right? you probably work more than that, right? >> i work a lot, i work a lot. but you work hard too. >> right. and you're american, i'm american. we both work hard and the difference is, i imagine you can take care of yourself pretty good and probably your grandkids and things of that sort, too. >> reporter: gaylord says he doesn't resent other people's good fortune, he just wonders if anyone sees the struggle all around him. >> i'm grateful for any and everything that god sends my way. however, people will pass you

going through. there's poverty, there's a lot of poverty around here. >> reporter: the kind that leads a dad to give his blood for his daughter's birthday smile. >> you like it, baby? >> yeah. >> how old are you today? >> 3. >> going swimming? >> yeah. [john] when i want to play a 1930's cop, i want that role now. when i crave a turkey sandwich, i want to eat it now. [woman] john, i got your sandwich. [john] when my neck itches, i want to scratch it now. so when the irs owes me money, guess when i want it? [woman] now.

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why would i wear a wire? geico. because saving fifteen percent or more on car insurance is always a great answer. tthe whitenessmy wasn't there as much, my teeth didn't look as healthy as others. my dentist said that pronamel would help protect my teeth. pronamel is giving me the confidence to know that i'm doing the right thing so it's nice to know that it was as simple as that. with the laughing cow's nine flavorful varieties of creamy cheese, there's no end to what you can discover. the laughing cow. reinvent snacking. >> reporter: last november, a group called just capital announced a bold idea. they were going to rank companies not by profits, but other qualities. they polled americans about which qualities they admired the most in a business. and up came leadership, worker safety.

paying a fair wage. billionaire hedge fund manager paul jones started just capital, and he thinks american consumers are ready to spend their money on companies they most admire. >> the people who run corporate america today, they're generally good people. they're good family people. i think they'll welcome a little bit of a shifting of what priorities should be back to core american values that come from main street. >> reporter: and all over the country, there are business leaders saying it's time to bring new ideas to american workers and their wages. the well-known burger joint that gives employees stock options. some companies help pay off college loans. and some of the most exciting ideas are rethinking education and giving workers a path to the future. bmw in south carolina trying to create a school to job highway. the company created a program to train people in mechanics,

and so far, every graduate got a job at bmw with the prospect of salaries up to $90,000. and this is a man named mark bertolini, who has ideas of his own. he's the son of an auto worker, successful ceo of a goliath company, aetna health care. 49,000 employees. bertolini says it all has to begin with corporate leaders who want to learn the lives of their workers. >> where do they live? and what are their lives like? and it took me six months to get that data. but once i got the data, i was embarrassed. >> reporter: he says when he became ceo, he was surprised to discover that some of his full time employees were paid so little, they had to go on public assistance. >> i said, "how can we let this happen?" here we are, a major fortune 50 company, with employees who are suffering every day to make ends meet. >> reporter: so aetna raised salaries to at least $16 an hour. they're helping workers pay down college debts. bertolini even pays workers to sleep more at night. and he vowed not to pass any of

these costs on to the aetna consumer. >> you know, our stock price is up. you know, we haven't lost a step. but we've spent millions of dollars doing this. >> reporter: i don't understand, if it's obviously a great investment, if it's -- your stock price is still gonna go up, you would think it would be obvious that everyone would be doing it. but they are not. why are they not? >> we need to change the dialogue. >> reporter: a dialogue, he says, that creates a new measure of success. >> 18% of the american public actually believes corporations are good. 18%. so, you know, how much lower do we need to go before we figure out this doesn't work? and so, instead of waiting for it to go away, why don't we step forward with some courage and conviction to make it better? >> reporter: a new capitalism. >> yeah, let's reinvent it. i mean, we're the captains of it. why shouldn't we be the ones that say, "here's the new way"? let's us, as a group of people, stand for something, and say,

this." >> reporter: and bertolini says if there are ceos in america who don't know where to start, just give him a call. and as we said, in seven days, we'll have a new president who has promised better wages and jobs, and we'll follow some of these people for the next year. and chris got a new pair of shoes. william has a warehouse job, and a new place to live. and finally, terrence, several months after we met him, there he was at the white house. he had been asked to speak on behalf of low-wage workers. i'm diane sawyer. thank you so much for watching tonight. and good night. jonathan: we are tracking snow and freezing rain

storman: first, we are on watch, tracking weather heading our way that is expected to bring snow, freezing rain, a mixed bag. right now it is quite in the district. meteorologist steve rudin joins us now. it sounds like a little bit of everything, and when does it start? steve: in the next few hours, and it will be out of here by early to