A SPECIAL WORLD PREMIERE PRESENTATION INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS WAGE SLAVES: NOT GETTING BY IN AMERICA MONDAY, AUGUST 26,9-11PM ET/PT
Inspired by the book Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
New York, NY, August 8, 2002 - How does anyone survive earning sixto seven dollars an hour? They are called "the working poor," but what exactly does that mean? Best-selling,National Book Critics Award winning author Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed, decided to find out by going undercover and joining themillions of adult Americans working full-time for minimum wage/poverty-levelearnings.
In the A&E special episode, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS: NOT GETTING BY IN AMERICA, premiering Monday,August 26, 9-11pm ET/PT, Ehrenreich opens a portal into the world of theworking poor, a place she came to understand while on her odyssey through threecities and half a dozen minimum wage jobs to research Nickel and Dimed. The documentary reaches beyond Ehrenreich's personal experiences to introduce five low-wage earners who share their uniqueand often poignant view of how the American dream looks from the bottomup.
In five cities, three women and two men permitted INVESTIGATIVEREPORTS to document the struggles they face every day just to carve out a lifefor their families.
A&E goes inside the lives of a single mother living in a LasVegas motel while longing for a permanent homeŠa South Central Los Angeles homehealth aide caring for gang members, and vowing not to slip back into his owncriminal pastŠan Alabama cafeteria worker who manages to find hope within herhardshipŠa Miami women's shelter receptionist who fears her daughter is doomedto repeat her mistakes, and a Henderson, Nevada single dad who saw hiswell-to-do life evaporate.
Watchingtheir challenges, no one will forget that living on the edge is becoming thenorm in America, instead of the hard-luck exception. In this two-hour IR, A&E has Ehrenreich's full cooperationalong with non-fiction rights to Nickel and Dimed for the making of this program, which takes a rigorous look at the policies and the realitiesfacing America's working poor today through a combination of observed casehistories and balanced expert analysis.
IR: WAGE SLAVES: NOT GETTING BY IN AMERICA puts a human face on the concept of "the working poor" - and finds its face that many can recognize.
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS: WAGE SLAVES: NOT GETTING BY IN AMERICA is produced by Termite Artfor A&E Network. Executive Producer for Investigative Reports is BillKurtis. Executive Producer for Termite Art is Erik J. Nelson. Co-Executive Producer is Amy Briamonte. Supervising Producers are Dave Harding and Fred Silverman. Producers are Julie Harman andKathleen Kern. Post-Production Producers are Jon Moser and Richard Ross. Supervising Producer for A&E is Laura Fleury and Executive Produceris Carol Anne Dolan.
Winner of the 2000 Governors Award from The Academy of Television Arts& Sciences for The Biography Project for Schools, A&E offers viewers aunique blend of original programming, including the highly acclaimed Biography® series, original movies, drama series, and engaging documentaries. A&E isavailable in more than 85 million Nielsen homes in the United States. A&Ereceived 14 Emmy nominations in 2001, the most of any basic cable network, aswell as the prestigious Peabody Award for "The Crossing." The A&E web site is located at www.AandE.com,the BIOGRAPHY web site is located at www.Biography.com.
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