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

Don’t Strengthen the WTO by Admitting China

It is unfortunate that the first major post-Seattle legislative battle is over China and the WTO

Executive Excess 1999: A Decade of Executive Excess

The sixth annual CEO pay report reviews the 1990s.

Executive Excess 1998: CEOs Gain From Massive Downsizing

The fifth annual executive compensation survey finds that CEOs who downsize workers are rewarded.

Executive Excess 1997: CEOs Gain From Massive Downsizing

The fourth annual CEO pay report finds that once again, CEOs win and workers lose.

Executive Excess 1996: How Wall Street Rewards Job Destroyers

The third annual executive compensation survey examines a new and disturbing trend: Wall Street’s rewarding of corporate layoffs.

Executive Excess 1995: Workers Lose, CEOs Win (II)

The second annual report on CEO pay: The widening wage gap between U.S. executives and their U.S. and Mexican workers.

Executive Excess 1994: Workers Lose, CEOs Win

The first annual CEO pay survey: An analysis of executive salaries at top job-cutting firms

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

Billionaire Wealth vs. Community Health

Bianca Agustin, Chuck Collins, Jonathan Heller, Sara Myklebust, Omar Ocampo | November 18, 2020

'Billionaire Wealth vs. Community Health' report urges Delinquent Dozen companies to protect workers from exploitative owners and executives.

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.