Americans Have Harder Time Moving Up Economic Ladder [AUDIO]

Its a lot harder for those struggling financially in America to rise from lower economic rungs than our neighbors in other countries, according to a national study. Maury Randall, a finance professor at Rider University, says Americans in the bottom 20% of the income scale have more trouble moving up compared to people in Canada and other countries like Europe. "Education is a contributing factor...those in the U.S. that aren't going to school or getting the education they need are having a much more difficult time getting out of that bottom 20% of than those in other places."

He says those in the bottom income level also tend to live in poorer neighborhoods, "There tends to be more crime and that it makes it a lot harder to get jobs especially locally."

The U.S. also has more public health problems like obesity and diabetes, which Randall says can limit "both education and employment."

Randall says the studies don't control for things like immigration in U.S. which could alter the findings.

"We have many cases were immigrants come to this country and they do quite well and there is little data on that here...which might show greater mobility in the United States."

The average growth of income is higher in America than other countries as well.

"The improvement from one generation to the next might still be better for someone that might be in one of these groups, even though they might not have moved into one of these higher income levels."

The bottom line here is that education plays an important role, said Randall.

"I think Governor Christie has recognized this and he thinks we should have more charter schools and more competition to really work on the problem."