About your money from the most powerful leaders in the world. Im here in our Nations Capital your money from the post connected folks. The American Economy is on track. More than 3 million jobs added in the last year and a stock market hitting record highs. None of that seems to change the reality for millions of workers desperate for their share of the nations massive wealth. Thousands in cities across the country came out to protest low wages. The intent was to focus on the flight of fast food workers, others trying to make ends met joined the protest in solidarity. Like adjunct professors and freelance professionals. They demanded a federal minimum wage of 15. Reporter agneses has a long come ute. Spending 15, taking two buses taking two hours. She makes 10 and hasnt had a raise in a decade. We are struggling struggling bad in the city. We need the 15. 15. Foot went up reasons rent went up. We need 15. The fight started with fast food workers, and increased to workers like agnes we need to put a demand on the stable to enable us to take care of our families. A lot collessed around 15 as a pair minimum. In response to critics mcdonalds announced it is increasing pay from nearly a dollar to under 10 work irs say its not enough and will impact only a small majority. They continue to battle, rallying across the country on wednesday outside bignamed businesses who cant afford the increase and will have to cut jobs or raise prices. 15 an hour is a reasonable thing to do, until you realise someone has to pay for it. The economy needs entry level jobs like these. But the vast majority of people that started move up into higher paying positions within a few years or, in many cases, within a year. Reporter agnes, whose husband lives on a fixed income, has been doing her job for 17 years. That is a big myth. Low wage workers are not teenagers, they are families, mother, fathers, not just teenagers. Reporter like agnes, they are willing to take to the streets to make their voices heard. The International Monetary fund says inequality is an impediment to growth in america and the world. Trillions have been pumped into the economy. By various Central Banks since the recession six years ago. Those trillions failed to stimulate the kind of growth na pushes incomes up, except for those at the top. The International Monetary fund insists that america is the one bright spot in the world. Despite Many Americans saying they are not feeling the recovery. In a report the imf says america shouldnt take its relative good luck for granted, economic woes afflicting people in europe and slowing growth in asia, two of americas biggest trading partners will come back to bite the u. S. I. M. F. Managing director, Christine Lagarde says the world could fall into something she calls a new mediocre. Slow Economic Growth for a long time. I met her in washington to ask how she defines the threat mediocrity imposes. New mediocre is that sort of growth but moderate. Growth but uneven, growth, but no jobs. My fear is this new mediocre is the new reality. I dont think it is. If policy makers take the right decisions, and that means addressing todays risk and addressing tomorrows potential, which we have downgraded. Our growth rates globally are not terrible. What is the concern, because we are not in panic, recession, crisis, we are not going to fix the economies making it more beneficial to the greater population. You know when you get the school report, saying mediocre, can do better. We need to do better. What that means in the short term, continuing the monitoring policies in eurozone, in japan, moving away from commodities in the u. S. Is great news. The u. S. Growth will be solidly anchored which we are seeing. It means a smart fiscal policy. Those with fiscal space should use it. Those that dont should redesign fiscal policies in order not to weigh on labour, and means addressing the Financial Stability risks that is a potential. That is for today. We believe policy makers should address today the Growth Potential issue for tomorrow. Meaning taking the Structural Reforms that are difficult to take, and that we risk not taking if we are complacent. When i think of Structural Reforms, i go to greece or japan. What are you talking about . Okay. What im talking about is in both countries, Labour Market reform, to encourage people to actually go to the job market. When i think of Structural Reforms, i think of encouraging trade facilitation, making sure that the trade agreements in discussion at the moment are pushed to conclusion, so that there is more trade going on, and finally, i think of infrastructure, because thats a problem that is applying across the world, these are three categories and labour mark the infrastructure and trade where serious reforms has to be applied. In the United States, the with Interest Rates the lowest its been, the opportunity to undertake Infrastructure Development and repair has not been taken. We are afraid of it in the developed world. Correct. Correct. Its not as if resources could not we made available. As you said, the low Interest Rates is on encouragement. So is the price of oil. If you remove subsidies, which apply in some countries of the world, or decide on a small taxation then you can actually identify and collect the revenues that will help to improve the situation of highways or the maintenance of bridges, or help construct infrastructure that will move goods around. Lets talk about greece. I was in athens while you were here meeting with the finance minister of greece. Greece scraped together the payment due, 500 million. Now greece has a situation in which if they dont have an agreement with the eurozone finance ministers on may 11 to get more money, they probably cant make the may 12th payment to you, which is over 700 million euros, what happens then. I think its very much what happens now that matters. I hope the greek authorities put the working energy and brain power. They are not short of that on which reforms, by when. Will be implemented to reach the objectives set out collectively. The way it happened, you had taken a hard line. We cap discuss all sorts of things you were prepared to support greece, but that payment had to be made that payment had to be made on the day it is made. The International Monetary fund put in a call to make sure it was paid. Is that the same position you will take hon may 12th. You know, no advanced economy has ever asked for delays of payment. I hope that we do not innovate in that situation. I you know, there are liquidities that need to be addressed. The best way is to start the good work now and commit to the reforms that will be helpful to greece. Lets speak about wages, im sensing a shift in the United States, a sentimental shift. We saw int he last elections a number of states with conservative increases. We are seeing Major Companies in the United States institute lower and higher minimum wages, and they argue they cant get the staff unless they do it. There are protests this week. Give me your sense about the push for raising the minimum wage in the United States. A push by obama. Is this a good thing to do. Its a supply and demand factor you describe and from an over all view, minimum wages would be a boost to consumption. In our pi lateral discussions with the u. S. , we are supportive of a move in that direction. The argument against raising the minimum wage is that an increase kills jobs evidence suggests that not raising it hurts the economy more. One of the top labour officials in americas government is here next. A real money report from washington back in 2 minutes. In our pi lateral discussions next. Next. [ ] the federal minimum wage is 7. 25 an hour, when it was put in place in 1938, it was 0. 25, and had it kept up with inflation, minimum wage would be 10, not far off what president obama wants is to be 10 toy 25. Alaska arkansas nebraska and south dakota voted to raise them. A number of Companies Said theyd increase the raises they pay the lowest paid workers, include g the gap, walmart, mcdonalds and delta airlines. Opponents argue that raising the wage will yield economic disaster. The chief economist at the United States department of labour joins me. Welcome. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for having me. You heard the argument if you increase the minimum wage, it comes out of consumers pockets and reduce dend and the number of workers, because in exchange for increasing the amount will reduce employment. The effect of increasing the minimum wage is one of the most studied things in labour economics. We have all these little experiments going on all the time. Some states raised them. Neighbouring dont. You see if theres a migration of people or business. What our Research Shows is that increases in minimum wage caused little to know job loss. They have increased the wages of low wage workers. They are having a good effect on the economy. You are getting moneys in the pockets of those likely to spend it. It increases demands for goods and services. Who generates goods and services workers. More need to be hired. Its good for the economy and you are getting it in the pockets. You have good things happening for the economy without the disastrous effects that people think will happen when you raise the minimum wage. When talking about the walmarts and costco im happy they are doing it costco is an exception because they have been doing it because its tightens we see a need to raise they have been paying high wages for a while. And they have higher wages to get the workers that employers need. Theres a way to go. We are not there yet. As things are improving, as we see the stronger wage growth thatll continue to happen. Whats your argument to theres a way to go on that. We are seeing yefs in the economy. That will continue to happen. What is your argument to conservatives who say let the market deal with this. This is you people telling private businesses how to handle people. A couple of thing, one thing that we know is workers who are making low wages, they have to depend on Government Programs to make ends met. We are allowing those Government Programs to subsidise the wages that arent being paid by low wage employees. Thats a key reason where we see a reasonable wage so people make it month to month and not depend on Government Programs to fill in the gaps that low wage employees were not filling in. The bureau of labour statistics which you work closely with said most wages, about half of them, are under 25. They are young workers. Thats an argument against raising the minimum wage. They start off in low wage jobs and move on. They move to higher wage jobs. There is an interesting point about those data. What the data does, or the bureau of labour and statistics looks at is the characteristics, like the age characteristics of workers making the federal wage. It is 7. 25. It doesnt look at the people that get a raise if the minimum raise was increased, including everyone between. Also those at 7 25 and wherever and everyone between 7. 25 and whatever the new proposal would be. If you look at all of those getting a wage, if it was increased, the average age is 35. Many of those workers are parents. For example, nearly one in five children in this country get a raise if the minimum wage were increased. We are talking about people that depend on the earnings, its been too long, we havent seen an increase in six years, we deserve a wage. Thank you, the chief economist at the Labour Department turns out the world bank is the world bank is failing to protect people end g up displaced and resettled by project it pays for. I ask the World Bank President what has gone wrong and why. Thats next. Stick around. Criminal gangs risking lives its for this. 3 grams of gold killing our planet where its blood red. Thats where the mercury is most intense now, fighting back with science. We fire a Laser Imaging system out of the bottom of the plane revealing the deadly human threat because the mercury is dumped into the rivers and lakes, it then gets into the food chain. Thats hitting home it ends up on the dinner plate of people. Techknow only on Al Jazeera America part of Al Jazeera Americas special month long evironmental focus fragile planet the world bank has a mandate to promote longterm Economic Development and reduce poverty. The bank did an eternal review to find out if it was doing enough to protect the rites of people in developing nations who are displaced and resettled by major infrastructure projects, projects that the bank funds. Turns out the world bank is not doing enough, and that has implications for 3. 4 million. I asked the World Bank President if a global organization, Whose Mission it is to end extreme poverty might have been involved in making things worse for people it was craig to help. This was a world bank study, we wanted to know whether throughout the infrastructure projects, we were abiding which resettlement policies. Let me tell what it is. It is not unique. When you build infrastructure, for the developed countries, they go through this when they build the railroad across the us or highway 95. When it happens, you have resettlement or something where the government claims the land for the greater good. This happens in every country in the world. Our policy is anyone that happens to be on the land, when the development starts, has access to compensation. What do you think happens the minute we announce a project. People move on to the land. If you move on to the land, if you are a squatter, we give you the right. It came to our attention that we were not sure we were sticking by the policy. It was 3. 4 million affected in some way, thats why i took the time to release the reports and say now that we are going to expand the approach to infrastructure, in the name of ending poverty, we have to be serious about abiding by our own rules, which are better than a governments. It is something that we are serious about fixing. You emphasise this because part of your speech this morning about how to stimulate growth has a lot to do with Infrastructure Development. You think its a key pillar to sustainable growth. Lets look at energy in africa. A way to proceed it with hydroelectric power. Again, this is an example. We are looking at huge examples. This is an example f rich countries having done it. Now looking at how to do it. We are for it. We have to realise in developed 60 of hydroelectric potential has been exploited. In africa, its less than 1 . Shouldnt very have the opportunity to have a source of power that at the same time doesnt put carbon in the air. We think the answer is yes. Its complex. Thats our job. We need to jump into the situation, ensure that people are resettled but get the projects done to be lived out of poverty. A month ago energy, the price of oil was in the low 40 a barrel. Now we are above 5, which is where a number of groups say oil is likely to be in 2015. Relatively low compared to a year ago. You are calling for countries that use it. To pull pack, why . That use it if you look at the energy subsidies, and the i. M. F. Looked at 20 low and middle income subsidies, and they found the top 20 earners are receiving six times the benefit as the bottom 20 . Oil subsidies are a regressive tax. We dont believe in regressive taxes, that they send the wrong message about the burning of carbon and putting it into the air. Theres so many good things that can happen. With low oil prices they can plan to remove the subsidies, and theyll lose that money for literally subsidizing the rich to focus the efforts on supporting the poor. We spent this show, some time, on inequality of wages. Including in america. And one of the issues is we are seeing growing inequality and a stagnation of wages at the lowest ends. Globally speaking where are we in terms of reducing inequality. Its a mixed picture. Certain countries that made focused efforts. Brazil is one, there are programs focused on inequality, and they are successful. Inequality rates are high. I dont think you can say its worse. Its getting better. The balance is can you ensure equality of opportunity without going to the point of assuring equality of outcome. Trying to assure equality of out kom it doesnt have a good track record. Its a golden thing that countries are striving for. What wed like to see, and we measure it, for the first time the World Bank Group says a goal is a measure of inequality. Which is to what extent are the bottom 40 sharing Economic Growth, and the goal is they the bottom 40 should have a faster Income Growth than the economy as a hole. We are looking at everything we can do to make it happen. Sometimes its safety nets, job skills, Training Programs and specific investments in the private sector to create the jobs that young people are looking for. Its different in different thats our strength. We have Global Knowledge. I can say what did they do in mexico to move from a traditional Cash Programme to formal employment. I can take that to indonesia. In my view, as long as we do that, take Global Knowledge and move it to where its needed therell be a central roll for us. And the development landscape. Greece, the birthplace of civilisation, home to ruins from that brings tourists from all places of the wert. I went to greece to dig into the incompetence and corruption to dig into financial collapse. Will the greek tragedy be avoided . From the streets to the halls of power, ill take you to greece for a series of special reports to see if this country can avoid an imminent disaster. Stay tuned. Thats our show for today. Thank you for joining us. Im ali velshi. Al Jazeera America brings you a first hand look at the environmental issues, and new understanding of our changing world. Its the very beginning this was a storm of the decade. Hurricane. We can save species. Our special month long focus, fragile planet mousse this week on talk to al jazeera, new York City Police commissioner william bratton. This is not race unfortunate. Despite what the federal court says. Its his second go as head of the police force, and back when race dominates. When you have people chanting what do i want, cops. Im sorry, thats too mar he says police arrogance,