Corporate driven inequality

Enhancing Corporate Transparency: Federal Policy Recommendations

Corporate structures as they exist today are undemocratic, by design, run by and in the interest of a small group of elites. The incessant need to earn a profit and benefit the few has come at a great cost to people and the planet. The damaging impacts of the increased concentration of wealth, the automation of industry, and climate catastrophe demand that companies change the way they operate.

Reforming Corporate Tax Policy to Address Global Inequality: Federal Policy Recommendations

Big corporations engaging in tax avoidance will always be one step ahead of the game unless governments ‘walk the talk’ in tackling these dodges and loopholes, and cooperate to overhaul global tax rules. Previous attempts at tax reform have attempted to plug the holes in our international tax system with limited success. As a result, multinational corporations are still paying less tax than before the financial crisis in 2008, and continue to shift as much as 40% of their foreign profits to tax havens.

Labor Relations Policies that Work for Workers: Federal Policy Recommendations

Policies protecting collective bargaining, including for workers employed under non-standard work arrangements (NSWAs) such as temporary, contract, seasonal, and gig positions, are essential to support workers and their families. Because women, and particularly women of color, are overrepresented in low-wage jobs that lack essential workplace protections, enforceable mandates can reduce racial, gender, and economic inequities. Better labor policies correlate not only to higher median household income and GDP per capita, but also to lower rates of poverty, infant mortality, and food insecurity. Multiple Oxfam research projects [Inequality, Made in America; Best States to Work Index; Where Hard Work Doesn’t Pay Off; U.S. Care Policy Scorecard] show that policymakers can reduce inequality by enacting strong labor policies centered on people, which will create an inclusive economy that will work for all.

Creating a Business Environment for Effective Worker Ownership: Federal Policy Recommendations

The damaging impacts of the increased concentration of wealth, the automation of industry, and climate catastrophe demand that we create a different way of doing business. Corporate structures as they exist today are undemocratic, by design, run by and in the interest of a small group of elites.

How to Create Decent Work Policies for All: Federal Policy Recommendations

Commonsense policies on wages, paid leave, benefits, and workplace conditions are essential to support workers and their families. Because women, and particularly women of color, are overrepresented in low-wage jobs that lack essential workplace protections such as paid leave, stronger mandates can reduce racial, gender, and economic inequities. Better labor policies correlate not only to higher median household income and GDP per capita, but also to lower rates of poverty, infant mortality, and food insecurity.

How to Take Climate Action and Tackle Inequality: Federal Policy Recommendations

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), all pathways that will limit global warming to 1.5°C, with no or limited overshoot, require rapid and far-reaching changes in energy, land, urban areas and infrastructure, including transport and buildings, and industrial systems. The changes required are unprecedented in scale and imply sharp reductions in emissions in all sectors. For this to happen the biggest polluters, in particular big businesses, must adopt 1.5 aligned Science Based Targets approved by SBTI. Done right, these targets, combined with carbon removals, provide guiding principles for climate action that could spur massive decarbonization and a just transition away from unequal and carbon-dependent economic models towards more equitable and sustainable models that secure the future and livelihoods of workers and their communities. However, vague and unimplemented climate action plans risk being a dangerous distraction that could exacerbate the climate crisis as well as inequality.

Inequality, Made in America

How Corporate America is Fueling our Inequality Crisis

Corporate Inequality Framework

How do the largest US corporations contribute to inequality?

Oxfam's Corporate Inequality Framework

Investor Use Guide

Getting Ahead of the Curve on Dynamic Materiality: How U.S. investors can foster more inclusive capitalism

Power, Profits and the Pandemic: From corporate extraction for the few to an economy that works for all

The worsening inequality crisis triggered by COVID-19 is fuelled by an economic model that has allowed some of the world’s largest corporations to funnel billions of dollars in profits to shareholders, giving yet another windfall to the world’s top billionaires, a small group of mostly white men. At the same time, it has left low-wage workers and women to pay the price of the pandemic without social or financial protection. Since the onset of the pandemic, large corporations have put profits before workers’ safety, pushed costs down the supply chain and used their political influence to shape policy responses. COVID-19 should be the catalyst for radically reining in corporate power, restructuring business models with purpose and rewarding all those that work with profits, creating an economy for all.