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

Italy’s Far Right Rode Inequality to Victory — But Has No Answers for It

A let-the-rich-be government has opened the doors to the smiling heirs of Italy’s neofascist factions.

A Voice at the United Nations the World Needs to Hear

The UN’s secretary-general is speaking truth – about inequality — to our world’s leaders.

Can’t Beat the Heat? Blame Inequality

Why poor neighborhoods are often hotter than rich neighborhoods — and what to do about it.

The First Billionaire To Become UK’s King

We expected Charles to get the crown. We didn’t expect him to make a billion-dollar fortune first.

Baseball Immortality Meets Ungodly Inequality

Superstar Juan Soto gets a new team. His fans get heartbreak. His owners get richer.

From the Wall Street Journal: A Deeply Flawed CEO Pay Analysis

The paper’s ‘corporate effectiveness’ lens mischaracterizes the views of management visionary Peter Drucker on pay equity and employee empowerment.

Janet Yellen’s Noble Effort Comes to Naught

To end the tax games rich people play, we need more oomph than isolated officials can deliver.

Does the Future Belong to People Who Profit Off Our ‘Excessive Wealth Disorder’?

A promising new national campaign is aiming to ‘TURN’ around a profoundly unequal USA.

Tax the Rich, House the Homeless

In L.A., 1 percenters currently pay less than a 1 percent city tax on the mansions they make millions selling.

Does the Amazon Now Have a Shot at Survival?

Colombia has new leaders who see the direct link between plutocracy and the plunder of our most valuable ecosystem.

Can We Ever Retire to Greater Equality?

Private pensions no longer narrow our income gaps. Taxing the rich to boost Social Security could.

The ‘Secret’ That Gets CEOs Rich: Keep Workers Poor

At the major U.S. firms that compensate workers the worst, chiefs now pocket 670 times their typical worker pay.

Executive Excess 2022

The CEOs at America’s largest low-wage employers are grabbing huge raises while workers and consumers struggle with rising costs.

Two Nations Joined at the Hip by English — and Inequity

The UK and the USA have each spent the last half-century enriching the few and failing the many.

In the Shadow of Davos, Central Bankers Go Rogue — and Rational

The case for taxing the rich gets an unexpected boost.

In Politics, Money Will Always Talk. Unless…

What lesson can we take so far from this year’s primary election results?

The Height of Folly: Safeboxes in the Sky

Can’t our society find something better to do than give billionaires playpens over a quarter-mile up?

Our Outrageous CEO-Worker Pay Gap: Unfair and Unwise

Why support for capping CEO pay will only keep growing.

Bulldozing Away the Right to Tax the Rich

The rich all over, not just Elon Musk, are flexing their muscle.

From France, an Unexpected Call for a Ceiling on CEO Pay

Our modern societies, top French politicos fear, just might ‘explode’ without one.