Sarah Anderson directs the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies and is a co-editor of the IPS web site Inequality.org. Sarah’s research covers a wide range of international and domestic economic issues, including inequality, Wall Street reform, CEO pay, taxes, labor, and international trade and investment. Sarah is a well-known expert on executive compensation, as the lead author of more than 20 annual “Executive Excess” reports that have received extensive media coverage.

During the Obama administration, she served on the Investment Subcommittee of the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy (ACIEP). In 2009, this subcommittee carried out a review of the U.S. model bilateral investment treaty. In 2000, she served on the staff of the bipartisan International Financial Institutions Advisory Commission (“Meltzer Commission”), commissioned by the U.S. Congress to evaluate the World Bank and IMF. Sarah is a co-author of the books Field Guide to the Global Economy (New Press, 2nd edition, 2005) and Alternatives to Economic Globalization (Berrett-Koehler, 2nd edition, 2004).

Prior to coming to IPS in 1992, Sarah was a consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development and an editor for the Deutsche Presse-Agentur. She holds a Masters in International Affairs from The American University and a BA in Journalism from Northwestern University.

Latest

Executive Excess: How Taxpayers Subsidize Giant Corporate Pay Gaps

More than two-thirds of the top federal contractors and corporate subsidy recipients paid their CEO more than 100 times their median worker pay in 2017.

Executive Excess 2018

How Taxpayers Subsidize Giant Corporate Pay Gaps

Unions Have Survived Tough Times Before

The Supreme Court just dealt unions a crushing blow, but they’ve endured worse — and come out stronger.

The Poor People’s Campaign Goes to Congress

Some politicians are finding ways to lift up the voices of Americans struggling with poverty and inequality without grabbing the limelight for themselves.

Big Pay Gaps Are Bad for Business

Would you do your best work for a CEO who pulls in 5,000 times your own salary?

Rep. Keith Ellison Takes a Hard Look at New CEO Pay Ratio Data

The Minnesota lawmaker has been a champion of efforts to defend the disclosure reform from Republican attack.

Five Charts that Show Why We Need to Tackle Gender Justice and Poverty Together

The Poor People’s Campaign’s first week of nonviolent moral direct actions will shine a spotlight on the problems of women in poverty.

Inside “The Souls of Poor Folk” Moral Audit with Co-Author

“The Poor People’s Campaign was a project first introduced by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, who was assassinated months after he announced it. It has been restarted by the […]

Banking CEO Pay Still Out of Control

Report Finds Excessive CEO Pay, Underpaid Workers at National, Regional Banks

Report: CEO-Worker Pay Ratios in the Banking Industry

A decade after the crash, excessive pay is still a problem at the mega-banks and the 2nd-tier firms that stand to benefit from the current deregulation push.

Will Greed Be the EPA Leader’s Downfall?

Activists are hoping to use Scott Pruitt’s self-enrichment at taxpayer expense to get rid of a dangerous climate change denier.

Poor People’s Campaign Gears Up for Mother’s Day Launch

A major new report makes the case for a “fusion movement” against systemic racism, poverty and inequality, miltarism and the war economy, and ecological devastation.

How Poverty, Climate Change, and Bad Policy Put Poor People at Greater Risk of Pest-Borne Diseases

Public health resources are being cut while mosquito-borne diseases like Zika and the West Nile virus flourish in poor communities.

DC Joins Seven States with Campaigns to Close Carried Interest Loophole

President Trump’s failure to fulfill a campaign promise to axe the controversial tax benefit for hedge fund and private equity fund managers has sparked action at the state level.

No CEO Should Earn 1,000 Times More Than a Regular Employee

Employees of at least five U.S. corporations would have to work more than a millennium to catch up with their CEO.

11 “Small” Banks That Would Benefit from Deregulation Bill Have Huge Pay Gaps of 146 to 1

Supporters of a Senate-approved deregulation bill claim it will provide relief for community banks. But, judging by the size of the beneficiaries’ CEO-worker pay ratios, they are hardly Mom & Pops.

How to Reduce Poverty and Inequality Through State Government Taxes

As the new federal tax law slashes IRS bills for corporations and the wealthy, the momentum is growing for progressive state-level taxes that could recoup some of these resources.

Poverty, Inequality, and the Poor People’s Campaign — 50 Years Later

How the diminishing value of minimum wage and declining unions are contributing to a poverty rate that hasn’t budged since 1967.

Investors and Employees Gain a New Tool to Fight Inequality

The new SEC disclosure regulation finally sees daylight, bringing changes for shareholders, employees, and even consumers, Sarah Anderson explains in this Bloomberg Q+A.

Program Director

Global Economy

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CEO Pay, Financial Regulations, Financial Transaction Tax, Inequality, International Monetary Fund, Tax Reform, Trade, Wages, Wall Street, Worker Rights

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