Lead in text:
Two-and-a-half million Americans are considered the "working poor" -- that's the highest that number's been in at least the last two decades, says Pulitzer Prize winner David Shipler, who joins Krys Boyd on Think today at 1 p.m. Shipler wrote the book The Working Poor: Invisible In America. The public radio show Marketplace recently took an intriguing look at day-to-day life for these people. A couple of the choicest cuts: Kids often are charged with chipping in, and families sometimes even split up just to make ends meet.
Halima Tinson and Rickey Ricardo are scraping by on what little money Tinson makes serving lunch at a charter school. They live well below the poverty line in a neighborhood called City Heights in San Diego. Jolie Puidokas/Marketplace
