Veteran labor journalist and Institute for Policy Studies associate fellow Sam Pizzigati co-edits Inequality.org, the Institute’s weekly newsletter on our great divides. He also contributes a regular column to OtherWords, the IPS national nonprofit editorial service.

Sam, now retired from the labor movement, spent two decades directing the publishing program at America’s largest union, the 2.8-million-member National Education Association, and before that edited the national publications of three other U.S. trade unions.

Sam’s own writing has revolved around economic inequality since the early 1990s. His op-eds on income and wealth concentration have appeared in periodicals all around the world, from the New York Times to Le Monde Diplomatique.

Sam has authored four books and co-edited two others. His 2004 book, Greed and Good: Understanding the Inequality that Limits Our Lives, won an “outstanding title” honor from the American Library Association’s book review journal. His 2012 title, The Rich Don’t Always Win: The Forgotten Triumph over Plutocracy that Created the American Middle Class, 1900-1970, explores how average Americans ended the nation’s original Gilded Age. Sam’s most recent book, The Case for a Maximum Wage, offers a politically plausible path toward ending that Gilded Age’s second coming.

Latest

India Spotlights Corporate Pay Ratios

In India, major corporations now have to disclose their CEO and median worker pay. U.S. corporations may soon have to finally follow suit.

A Manufacturer of Equality

In the United States, top corporate execs sometimes make more in an hour than their workers can make in a year. At Mondragon, one of Spain’s largest companies, no execs can make more in an hour than their workers make in a day.

The Cutting Edge of Waste

Ultra-wealthy financiers have hoarded far more cash than they can responsibly invest.

Why We Need $50,000 Traffic Tickets

Let’s make sure our penalties amount to penalties for everyone.

Do Americans Want to Tax the Rich?

This simple question can’t seem to get a simple answer. A look at some new attempts to explain why.

Privatizing Public Services

The taxes we pay should bankroll quality public services, not corporations and overpaid CEOs.

A Sudden Surge of Statistical Confusion

The New York Times and the Washington Post have done some solid reporting on inequality. But this past week doesn’t rank among their finest moments.

Money to Burn

While millions can’t even afford to feed their kids, the super rich are hiring a Swiss company to name theirs.

A Tiny Step Toward Ending a CEO Scam

The SEC finally moves, ever so slightly, against wagers that reward CEOs when their companies fail.

A Kerfuffle Over Global Wealth Stats

Can we trust Oxfam’s latest numbers on global inequality? Critics don’t think we should. But their pushback is getting pushback aplenty.

New “Blue-Ribbon Panel Report” on Inequality Has a Major Blindspot

To save our democracy — which a major new report on our grand divide never gets around to recognizing — we need to contemplate our plutocracy.

Inequality Is Costing Us Big-Time

Americans pay more for an economy that pumps our treasure to the top than you probably think.

Does This Definition Make Me Look Rich?

No statistical contortion can hide the growing divide between the 1 percent and everyone else.

America’s Grand Fortunes Go Overboard

With middle-class net worth crumbling, the Forbes 400 grow wealthier than ever.

INFOGRAPHIC: The Obamacare Benefit You’ve Never Heard Of

How a little-known provision in the Affordable Care Act saved Americans $72 million

The Fed Finds an America Deeply Divided

The ‘average’ U.S. family is doing just fine, suggests the Federal Reserve’s latest triennial portrait of household wealth. But typical Americans are struggling. Could both be true?

Taming Modern Monopolies

We need to expand the struggle against privatizers.

Executive Excess 2014: The Obamacare Prescription for Bloated CEO Pay

This 21st annual report reveals hefty taxpayer savings from a little-known Affordable Care Act executive compensation reform.

A New Gameplan for Taking Down Privatizers

The outsourcing of public services to private go-getters has concentrated wealth the whole world over. The best answer to that concentration? That just may be new forms of public ownership.

How Much Wealth Are Our Wealthiest Hiding?

More than enough, the latest statistical evidence suggests, to warrant a full-fledged federal search. A new banking law in effect this month could start that search in the right direction.