CEO Pay Charts 1990-2005

Data Sources:
Total executive compensation: 2005 data based on Wall Street Journal survey, April 10, 2006; all other years based on similar sample in Business Week annual compensation surveys (now discontinued). Includes: salary, bonus, restricted stock, payouts on other long-term incentives, and the value of options exercised.
S&P 500 Index: Economic Report of the President, 2006 Table B-96; 1997, 2000 Table B-93; average of daily closing prices.
Corporate Profits: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income and Product Accounts, Table 6.16, with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments.
Average worker pay: Based on U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics Survey (average hourly earnings of production workers x average weekly hours of production workers x 52).
Minimum wage: Lowest mandated federal minimum wage, nominal; U.S. Dept. of Labor, Employment Standards Administration, Wage and Hour Division.
Adjustment for inflation: BLS, Average Annual CPI-U, all urban consumers, all items.

For Immediate Release-June 21, 2007
Contact: Emma Dixon, LCRC, 985-674-1551
(Cell phone 985-869-3584)
Christina Kasica, UFE, 617-423-2148, ext. 119
Kevin Cowl, NCRC, 202-464-2725

A joint Press Release from the Louisiana Community Reinvestment Coalition, the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, the Baton Rouge Branch of the NAACP, and the Urban Restoration Enhancement Corporation

New Report Highlights Lending Disparities and High-Cost Loans to Minorities in Baton Rouge Metropolitan Area

Data Shows Trend of Sub-Prime Loans to African-Americans

Download the PDF (1.5 Mb)

Baton Rouge, La.- A new report finds that African-Americans in Baton Rouge were more than twice as likely to receive sub-prime home loans as non-minorities in 2005. The report is the second in a series of reports on Louisiana lending practices commissioned by the Louisiana Community Reinvestment Coalition (LCRC) and compiled by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) Research and Policy division.

In the United States as a whole, African-Americans received 46.55% of sub-prime loans, while in Baton Rouge that number is 53.66%. Small business loans went to only 19.52% of the 26.36% of small businesses located in Baton Rouge's minority census tracts in 2005.

20 percent of whites received sub-prime loans in Baton Rouge in the same period.

"As we examine this trend of lenders providing sub-prime, high-cost loans we must recognize that this is a negative factor in an effort to build prosperity in communities," said Emma Dixon, LCRC Project Director. "We need to advocate for new legislation and policy to prevent these practices. One example is the new Borrower Protection Act of 2007 sponsored by Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York."

"We are pleased that LDRF is engaged in supporting the work of LCRC and its efforts to ensure economic justice," said Ashley Shelton of LDRF. "We want local lenders to do more to provide affordable, equitable lending products and to minimize the large number of high-cost, sub-prime mortgages and small business loans to people of color and in minority neighborhoods."

Ronnie Edwards of Urban Restoration said, "The work of non-profit counseling agencies may not be emphasized enough. The role of pre-purchase counseling is paramount in ensuring there is full knowledge of the buying process."

"As we all work together to increase the quality of life in our city," said Lamont Cole of the Baton Rouge NAACP, "we need full support from the banking community. The report indicates that we have a way to go to achieve that."

A third report is being commissioned by the LCRC for other large metropolitan areas in Louisiana, and is expected to show that communities across the state need greater levels of investment by the financial industry. The LCRC and its partners hope these reports will encourage more lenders to commit to creating prosperity across Louisiana.

Mses. Dixon, Edwards and Shelton and Mr. Cole are available for interviews or background.

###

The LCRC is a joint project of Boston-based United for a Fair Economy (UFE) and the Washington, DC-based National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC). UFE is a national non-partisan non-profit organization that spotlights the growing economic divide in the U.S. The NCRC is the nation's foremost trade association for economic justice, with over 600 members.

For Immediate Release-June 21, 2007
Contact: Emma Dixon, LCRC, 985-674-1551
(Cell phone 985-869-3584)
Christina Kasica, UFE, 617-423-2148, ext. 119
Kevin Cowl, NCRC, 202-464-2725

A joint Press Release from the Louisiana Community Reinvestment Coalition, the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, the Baton Rouge Branch of the NAACP, and the Urban Restoration Enhancement Corporation

New Report Highlights Lending Disparities and High-Cost Loans to Minorities in Baton Rouge Metropolitan Area

Data Shows Trend of Sub-Prime Loans to African-Americans

Download the PDF (1.5 Mb)

Baton Rouge, La.- A new report finds that African-Americans in Baton Rouge were more than twice as likely to receive sub-prime home loans as non-minorities in 2005. The report is the second in a series of reports on Louisiana lending practices commissioned by the Louisiana Community Reinvestment Coalition (LCRC) and compiled by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) Research and Policy division.

In the United States as a whole, African-Americans received 46.55% of sub-prime loans, while in Baton Rouge that number is 53.66%. Small business loans went to only 19.52% of the 26.36% of small businesses located in Baton Rouge's minority census tracts in 2005.

20 percent of whites received sub-prime loans in Baton Rouge in the same period.

"As we examine this trend of lenders providing sub-prime, high-cost loans we must recognize that this is a negative factor in an effort to build prosperity in communities," said Emma Dixon, LCRC Project Director. "We need to advocate for new legislation and policy to prevent these practices. One example is the new Borrower Protection Act of 2007 sponsored by Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York."

"We are pleased that LDRF is engaged in supporting the work of LCRC and its efforts to ensure economic justice," said Ashley Shelton of LDRF. "We want local lenders to do more to provide affordable, equitable lending products and to minimize the large number of high-cost, sub-prime mortgages and small business loans to people of color and in minority neighborhoods."

Ronnie Edwards of Urban Restoration said, "The work of non-profit counseling agencies may not be emphasized enough. The role of pre-purchase counseling is paramount in ensuring there is full knowledge of the buying process."

"As we all work together to increase the quality of life in our city," said Lamont Cole of the Baton Rouge NAACP, "we need full support from the banking community. The report indicates that we have a way to go to achieve that."

A third report is being commissioned by the LCRC for other large metropolitan areas in Louisiana, and is expected to show that communities across the state need greater levels of investment by the financial industry. The LCRC and its partners hope these reports will encourage more lenders to commit to creating prosperity across Louisiana.

Mses. Dixon, Edwards and Shelton and Mr. Cole are available for interviews or background.

###

The LCRC is a joint project of Boston-based United for a Fair Economy (UFE) and the Washington, DC-based National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC). UFE is a national non-partisan non-profit organization that spotlights the growing economic divide in the U.S. The NCRC is the nation's foremost trade association for economic justice, with over 600 members.

The U.S. is said to offer gold-standard health care, but as the most expensive health system in the world, some here say that only people with a pot of gold can get that care. 

Drug prices, health insurance, doctor visits and hospital stays are too expensive for many people to afford, while insurance and drug company profits continue to climb. 

The nation is entering a health care crisis, many leaders and experts say. An estimated 46 million people do not have health insurance because they cannot afford it, and the U.S. has one of the poorest health profiles of the developed world. 

Meanwhile, in 2005, pharmaceutical giant Johnson and Johnson earned profits of 10 billion dollars and Pfizer had profits of eight billion dollars, according to Fortune Magazine. 

Health care is bankrupting even well-to-do U.S. citizens, especially people who have the misfortune of becoming seriously ill. 

"The reason our health system is so crazy is we treat health care as a commodity. That really doesn't work. Most countries see it as part of their job to take care of their people," Meizhu Lui, executive director of United for a Fair Economy, told IPS. 

Read the full column by Adrianne Appel on IPSNews.net.

Tax Freedom or Tax Pride Day?

Originally posted on DollarsandSense.org on Jan. 1, 2007

Last fall, anti-tax organizations in Washington state sponsored an initiative, I-920, to abolish the state's estate tax. Given Washington's history of voting overwhelmingly for tax cuts, it looked as if the estate tax was a goner—especially as initial polls showed over half the state's voters believed they would have to pay the tax if it remained in place.

In reality, the tax is only paid on 200 to 250 estates a year, those worth over $2 million ($4 million for a couple). More than 99% of the state's taxpayers are exempt. Revenue from the tax is dedicated to the Education Legacy Trust Account, used to reduce class size in K-12 education statewide and provide scholarships and additional financial aid to nearly 18,000 low- and moderate-income college students.

In the end, the repeal effort was roundly defeated by a margin of 62-38. Majorities in all but 3 of the state's 39 counties, even in conservative western and southeastern Washington, voted against repeal.

Organizers say the main thing they had going for them was the linkage to education. "It would have been more difficult if we had not been able to tell people exactly where their money was going," said Sandeep Kaushik, communications director for the No on 920 campaign. "In every community, we knew how many students benefited."

Hundreds of students, educators, and parents were engaged in the effort to defeat the measure. The Washington Education Association, the statewide teachers union, put substantial resources into the campaign. And some of the state's multimillionaires were outspoken opponents of repeal as well, claiming that the tax is appropriate as a way to pay back the gift of education so that others can benefit as they did.

One of them, Bill Gates, Sr., father of the richest man on earth, argued in the Seattle Post Intelligencer that Washington's estate tax was an "opportunity recycling program." Gates's op-ed bears quoting at length:

"Washington state has provided fertile ground for some very successful enterprises in the last generation. These individuals have made good use of their 'American inheritance,' including our accumulated scientific heritage and natural bounty. They have harvested plenty from our society's investments in technology and our remarkable system of property laws and regulated markets. Without this inheritance, they frankly wouldn't have succeeded in quite the same way.

If we abolish the state's inheritance tax we stop the opportunity recycling program. We allow the common wealth to stop flowing and concentrate it in the hands of a few. And worse, we slow the investments in opportunity that aim to provide every young person a chance, whether they were born in South Seattle or Mercer Island."

At the federal level, the estate tax is due to be ended for one year, 2010, then come back the following year at its 2006 levels. Partisans on all sides agree this is bad policy, an example of congressional sausage-making at its worst; Congress must act before 2010 to fix it. Total repeal of the tax is unlikely now, with a Democratic majority in Congress. This opens up all sorts of real opportunities for positive reform.

The fight to keep the federal estate tax could benefit from analyzing the Washington state experience. Why not suggest an estate tax reform that tracks the Washington state law: a $2 million exemption, along with a progressive rate structure? And why not set aside the revenue from the tax for a Children's Opportunity Trust Fund, to provide educational and wealth-creation opportunities?

While earmarking is not great public policy, in this instance it may be the best way to help the public build an enduring understanding that the estate tax represents an intergenerational transfer, a way to ensure that cultural and educational resources flow to the young. It may be the key to long term preservation of the inheritance tax.

Chuck Collins is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and directs its Program on Inequality and the Common Good. He has authored and co-authored several books on economic justice issues, including Wealth and Our Commonwealth, a case for taxing inherited fortunes, and Economic Apartheid in America. He is the cofounder of United for a Fair Economy and a Dollars & Sense associate.

Sources: Washington Secretary of State, 2006 General Election Results; William Gates Sr., I-920: No, it's a small levy, so help recycle investment in the wealthy, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 10/15/06; Washington Defense.

The 2007 Shareholder Advocacy Campaign

Ten Super-Wealthy Anti-Estate Tax Families Listed on Forbes 400

Forbes magazine's 2006 list of the 400 wealthiest people in America includes individuals from ten of the 18 wealthy families exposed as stealthily funding efforts to repeal the estate tax, the nation's only tax on multi-million dollar inheritances.

The April 2006 report, "Spending Millions to Save Billions; The Campaign of the Super Wealthy to Kill the Estate Tax," by Public Citizen and United for a Fair Economy (UFE) showed that, if successful, the effort would save these super wealthy families about $71.6 billion dollars, and cost the federal government $1 trillion over ten years.

The ten anti-estate-tax billionaire families on the Forbes 400 list include the Cox family, the DeVos family, the Dorrance family, the Gallo family, the Harbert family, the Johnson family, the Koch family, the Mars family, the Sobrato family, and the most wealthy of all, the Walton family. Of the 24 individuals on the Forbes 400 list from the ten families, 13 rank among the 100 wealthiest people in the country. The net worth of most of the families has grown since the 2005 Forbes list, increasing the amount the families would save by repealing the estate tax.

"Everybody should be able to pass some savings or a modest home to their children when they die," says Chuck Collins, co-founder of UFE, and director of Fair Economy Action Fund, its lobbying arm. "For the first time, only billionaires made the Forbes 400 list. If children inherit billions of dollars completely tax-free as these families continue to lobby for, soon only trillionaires will make the list."

Of the 24 individuals from anti-estate-tax families on the Forbes 400 list, 20 owe their good fortune to their forbearers, since only four represent the first generation of family wealth. A list of the 24 wealthy individuals, their wealth, their location and their rank in the Forbes may be downloaded here.

Repealing or reducing the estate tax has been a hot topic in Congress this summer, with several US House and Senate votes that have not passed both chambers. The estate tax is also an issue in a number of Congressional and Senate campaigns this fall. Estate tax repeal or reduction is expected to come up for a vote in the lame duck session when Congress returns after the November elections.

United for a Fair Economy is a national non-partisan, non-profit organization that raises awareness of the dangers of growing economic inequality.

DOWNLOAD PDF of the UFE/Public Citizen Report:

Ten Super-Wealthy Anti-Estate Tax Families Listed on Forbes 400

Forbes magazine's 2006 list of the 400 wealthiest people in America includes individuals from ten of the 18 wealthy families exposed as stealthily funding efforts to repeal the estate tax, the nation's only tax on multi-million dollar inheritances.

The April 2006 report, "Spending Millions to Save Billions; The Campaign of the Super Wealthy to Kill the Estate Tax," by Public Citizen and United for a Fair Economy (UFE) showed that, if successful, the effort would save these super wealthy families about $71.6 billion dollars, and cost the federal government $1 trillion over ten years.

The ten anti-estate-tax billionaire families on the Forbes 400 list include the Cox family, the DeVos family, the Dorrance family, the Gallo family, the Harbert family, the Johnson family, the Koch family, the Mars family, the Sobrato family, and the most wealthy of all, the Walton family. Of the 24 individuals on the Forbes 400 list from the ten families, 13 rank among the 100 wealthiest people in the country. The net worth of most of the families has grown since the 2005 Forbes list, increasing the amount the families would save by repealing the estate tax.

"Everybody should be able to pass some savings or a modest home to their children when they die," says Chuck Collins, co-founder of UFE, and director of Fair Economy Action Fund, its lobbying arm. "For the first time, only billionaires made the Forbes 400 list. If children inherit billions of dollars completely tax-free as these families continue to lobby for, soon only trillionaires will make the list."

Of the 24 individuals from anti-estate-tax families on the Forbes 400 list, 20 owe their good fortune to their forbearers, since only four represent the first generation of family wealth. A list of the 24 wealthy individuals, their wealth, their location and their rank in the Forbes may be downloaded here.

Repealing or reducing the estate tax has been a hot topic in Congress this summer, with several US House and Senate votes that have not passed both chambers. The estate tax is also an issue in a number of Congressional and Senate campaigns this fall. Estate tax repeal or reduction is expected to come up for a vote in the lame duck session when Congress returns after the November elections.

United for a Fair Economy is a national non-partisan, non-profit organization that raises awareness of the dangers of growing economic inequality.

DOWNLOAD PDF of the UFE/Public Citizen Report:

Over years of working to preserve the estate tax, UFE has sponsored or commissioned various advertisements in print, audio and video.

Leave No Heiress Behind (video)

Marge & Frank Radio Ad (audio)

Maine Estate Tax Spending Priorities (print)

Prominent Mainers Support Estate Tax (print)