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

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

REPORT: Executive Excess 2023

Sarah Anderson | August 24, 2023

These “Low Wage 100” large corporations are enriching CEOs at the expense of both workers and taxpayers.

REPORT: Still A Dream: Over 500 Years to Black Economic Equality

Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, Chuck Collins, Omar Ocampo, Sally Sim | August 16, 2023

60 years after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the racial wealth divide persists.

REPORT: A Tale of Two Retirements 2023

Sarah Anderson, Scott Klinger | May 17, 2023

Our tax code helps CEOs retire in luxury while ordinary workers struggle. Here's how to fix it.

Report: High Flyers 2023: How Ultra-Rich Private Jet Travel Costs the Rest of Us and Burns Up the Planet

Chuck Collins, Omar Ocampo, Kalena Thomhave | May 1, 2023

In this report, we assess the environmental, economic, and security risks of private jet travel — and lay out tax reforms to offset them.

people holding signs that say make billionaires pay

Report: “Extreme Wealth: The growing number of people with extreme wealth and what an annual wealth tax could raise”

Chuck Collins, Omar Ocampo | January 17, 2023

An annual wealth tax on the world’s richest could raise $1.7 trillion globally.

REPORT: Homecoming: The Greater Birmingham Community Speaks on Regional Cooperation and a More Inclusive Economy

Marc Bayard, Allan M. Freyer, Ph.D., Robyn Hyden | November 17, 2022

Greater Birmingham, AL, has experienced a resurgence in economic growth and civic engagement. Yet the benefits of this prosperity are not widely shared.

Report: Gilded Giving 2022

Chuck Collins, Helen Flannery | July 19, 2022

Our nation’s charitable system is in danger of becoming a taxpayer-subsidized platform of private power for the ultra-wealthy.

lower half of a Black woman's face in purple silhouette with black background

The Other Side of the Storm

Kimberly Freeman Brown, Marc Bayard | June 21, 2022

What Do Black Immigrant Domestic Workers in the Time of Covid-19 Teach Us About Building a Resilient Care Infrastructure?

Bay State Billionaires

Chuck Collins, Omar Ocampo | June 9, 2022

Massachusetts billionaires' wealth surges 46 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Executive Excess 2022

Sarah Anderson, Sam Pizzigati, Brian Wakamo | June 7, 2022

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

Report: Taxing the World’s Richest Would Raise $2.52 Trillion a Year

Chuck Collins | January 18, 2022

A new joint report from Fight Inequality Alliance, Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam, and Patriotic Millionaires details what can be funded by simply taxing the rich.

REPORT: Silver Spoon Oligarchs

Chuck Collins, Helen Flannery, Joe Fitzgerald, Omar Ocampo, Sophia Paslaski, Kalena Thomhave | June 16, 2021

How America’s 50 Largest Inherited-Wealth Dynasties Accelerate Inequality

Executive Excess 2021

Sarah Anderson, Sam Pizzigati, Brian Wakamo | May 10, 2021

Low-Wage Workers Lost Hours, Jobs, and Lives. Their Employers Bent the Rules — To Pump up CEO Paychecks.

BOOK: The Wealth Hoarders

Chuck Collins | March 31, 2021

How billionaires pay millions to hide trillions.

Cashing in on Our Homes: Billionaire Landlords Profit as Millions Face Eviction

Chuck Collins, Omar Ocampo, Sara Myklebust, Joe Fitzgerald, Patrick Woodall, Oscar Valdés Viera, Jonathan Heller | March 17, 2021

Billionaire Landlords Profit as Millions Face Eviction

Pandemic Super Bowl 2021: Billionaires Win, We Lose

Frank Clemente, Chuck Collins, Arianna Fano, Omar Ocampo, William Rice | February 3, 2021

Billionaires Win, We Lose

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.