Economic Justice

Combating inequality means both lifting up and building power at the bottom, and breaking up concentration of wealth and power at the top. That’s why we work at the intersection of economic and racial justice through projects designed to build leadership and self-empowerment of black workers, immigrant workers, and low-wage workers, youth and families affected by incarceration, along with projects aiming to reverse the rules that criminalize poor people of color, and projects fighting to ensure that the wealthy and Wall Street corporations pay their fair share of taxes.

Latest Work

Debt Boomerang

How Americans would benefit from cancellation of impoverished country debts.

Economic Apartheid in America: A Primer on Economic Inequality and Insecurity (Second Edition)

A revised paberback following the 2004 presidential election, a graphic portrait of the growing gap between the rich and everyone else in America.

Taking Back the Corporation: A Mad as Hell Guide

Not so long ago, corporate America was widely respected. Not anymore. Taking Back the Corporation tells us how to take it back.

Executive Excess 2005

Defense contractors get more bucks for the bang.

AFTER the FTAA: Lessons from Europe for the Americas

With the talks for a free trade agreement for the entire Western Hemisphere on the brink of collapse, this report offers lessons from the EU for an alternative approach to integration.

Wal-Mart’s Pay Gap

Wal-Mart CEO compensation is 871 times as high as U.S. Wal-Mart worker pay; 50,000 times Chinese worker pay.

Field Guide to the Global Economy (Second Edition)

The Field Guide to the Global Economy presents the latest facts to help make sense of the rapidly changing international economy.

Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes

Weaving personal narratives, history, and plenty of solid economic sense, Gates and Collins make a sound and compelling case for estate tax reform, not repeal.

Executive Excess 2004

Campaign Contributions, Outsourcing,
Unexpensed Stock Options and Rising CEO Pay

Executive Excess 2003: CEOs Win, Workers and Taxpayers Lose

The tenth annual CEO pay survey.

Black Worker Initiative

Criminalization of Race and Poverty

Drug Policy

Global Economy

Inequality.org

Program on Inequality and the Common Good

National Priorities Project

Economic Hardship Reporting Project

Reports

How U.S. Trade Policy Failed Workers — And How to Fix It

Sarah Anderson, John Cavanagh, Kevin Gallagher, Manuel Perez-Rocha, Sandra Polaski, Rebecca Ray | September 16, 2020

Now more than ever, we need a new trade policy to support an economic recovery from the pandemic and to start building an economy that works for everyone.

Reimagining School Safety

Cecelia Scheuer, Uma Nagarajan-Swenson, Karen Dolan, Lindsay Koshgarian | September 9, 2020

A look at the dangers posed to students by law enforcement and how to invest in real school safety for our nation’s children.

Mining Injustice Through International Arbitration

Jen Moore, Ellen Moore, Luis Solano | August 24, 2020

Across the Global South, international mining companies use disturbing tactics to forcibly open mining operations against the wills of local communities.

Gilded Giving 2020 report cover 950x1237

Gilded Giving 2020: How Wealth Inequality Distorts Philanthropy and Imperils Democracy

Chuck Collins, Helen Flannery | July 28, 2020

How Wealth Inequality Distorts Philanthropy and Imperils Democracy

White Supremacy is the Preexisting Condition: Eight Solutions to Ensure Economic Recovery Reduces the Racial Wealth Divide

Chuck Collins, Dedrick Asante-Muhammed, Omar Ocampo, Darrick Hamilton | June 19, 2020

Eight Solutions to Ensure Economic Recovery Reduces the Racial Wealth Divide.

Black Immigrant Domestic Workers in the Time of COVID-19

Marc Bayard, Kimberly Freeman Brown | June 16, 2020

Black immigrant domestic workers are at the epicenter of three converging storms—the pandemic, the resulting economic depression, and structural racism.

Report: Billionaire Bonanza 2020

Chuck Collins, Omar Ocampo, Sophia Paslaski | April 23, 2020

Billionaire wealth has grown astoundingly over the last few decades — and, for some “pandemic profiteers,” even more dramatically since the COVID-19 crisis.