General Electric Lets a Little Democracy into its Boardroom

In a surprising move last month, General Electric (GE) announced that it would give large shareholders a role in nominating an alternative slate of directors for board elections. GE is not the first large company to adopt such measures, but it is the most prominent. Even more remarkable is the fact that the company put forth this measure voluntarily.

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Walmart Workers to Earn $10 an Hour; Walmart Heirs “Earn” $445,776 an Hour

Thanks to three years of organizing, 500,000 Walmart workers will soon get a raise.

Over the last three years, strikes and pickets by Walmart’s low-wage employees have steadily expanded. Last Black Friday, protests were staged at more than 1,000 Walmart stores across the U.S. Dozens of employees were arrested.

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Think Corporate Tax Cuts Create Jobs? Think Again.

Nine million unemployed Americans want to work, but they can’t find a job. Nearly seven million more are working part-time but want full-time work. We still have a job shortage in this country. Many in Congress think the solution is more corporate tax cuts.

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The 16th Amendment: Raising Revenues for Public Investments Since 1913

One hundred and two years ago today, Wyoming became the final state to ratify the 16th Amendment, giving Congress the constitutional authority to establish a federal income tax. Later that year, Congress used that authority to establish the modern income tax system.

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President's Revenue Plan Rewards Tax Dodgers

President Obama’s budget, which was released today, rewards corporate tax avoiders by forgiving hundreds of billions of dollars of corporate income taxes they owe on profits stashed offshore. The president proposed a minimum tax on offshore corporate profits last year, but only with today’s budget was he specific about the tax rates he would propose.

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Breathing Easier Because of the Clean Air Act

Today is the birthday of the Clean Air Act, legislation signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon forty-four years ago. This law is the centerpiece and platform for protecting the quality of the air we breathe. It took decades of work to get clean air laws passed, and over time amendments have been added to strengthen our air quality standards and to respond to new risks. This is the story of how we established standards to protect a public good that we all need, but most of us take for granted.

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400 Richest Americans Paid Same Effective Tax Rate as a Family Earning $105,000

The 400 Americans with the highest incomes paid roughly 18 percent of their earnings in federal income taxes in 2010, down from just under 20 percent in 2009, according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Of the 400 elite taxpayers in 2010, 37 paid an effective tax rate of less than 10 percent.

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Verizon Disputes Our Report Without Backing Up Its Claims

Last week, my colleague Sarah Anderson and I published Fleecing Uncle Sam, which examined large corporations that paid their CEOs more than they paid in federal corporate income taxes.

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Here’s the First Company to Ever Disclose CEO-to-Worker Pay Ratio While Citing the Dodd-Frank Act

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 required companies to begin disclosing the pay ratio between CEOs and the median pay of company employees.  Four years of struggle ensued, with many corporations arguing the disclosure would be costly if it could be done at all. The SEC has yet to issue a final rule, but is expected to soon, calling for disclosure to begin for all companies starting in 2016.

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Faces of the Growing Retirement Divide: Meet the 14 CEOs Whose Company Retirement Accounts Total $1.34 Billion

Fourteen of the CEOs of leading American corporations have at least $50 million in their company retirement accounts.  Four of these men accumulated more than $140 million each. Together, the 14 amassed more than $1.34 billion in retirement assets. Some of these funds are in pensions, the rest in deferred compensation accounts similar to 401(k)s.

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