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Showing Original Post only (View all)I absolutely love this idea: The Bad Boss Tax [View all]
http://billmoyers.com/2014/07/21/the-bad-boss-tax/The Bad Boss Tax
July 21, 2014
by Sarah Jaffe
TakeAction Minnesota, a network that promotes economic and racial justice in the state, wants to make that fee a reality. Its developing the framework for a bill that it hopes will be introduced in 2015 by state legislators who have worked with the network in the past. As conceived, the bad business fee legislation would require companies to disclose how many of their employees are receiving public assistance from the state or federal government. Companies would then pay a fine based on the de facto subsidies they receive by externalizing labor costs onto taxpayers.
TakeAction Minnesotas plan is one prong of a larger national effort. As progressive organizations grapple with how to turn years of public outrage over income inequality into policies for structural change, a network of labor and community organizing groups has seized upon the bad business fee as a solution that might take off.
...
Just how much money are low-wage businesses draining from local, state and federal coffers? A study released in April by Americans for Tax Fairness, a coalition of more than 400 organizations that advocate progressive tax reform, estimated that Wal-Mart alone costs taxpayers $6.2 billion annually in public assistance. That report draws from a 2013 study by the Democratic staff of the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which estimated that Wal-Mart cost taxpayers, on average, between $3,015 and $5,815 per worker. For a hypothetical 300-person Wal-Mart Supercenter in Wisconsin, that added up to as much as $1.75 million in public subsidies per year. Those taxpayer dollars come in the form of joint federal-state programs such as Medicaid and the School Breakfast Program, as well as federal ones such as the National School Lunch Program, the Section 8 Housing Program, the Earned Income Tax, Low Income Home Energy Assistance and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, also known as food stamps).
Americans for Tax Fairness used the House Democrats study to extrapolate Wal-Marts public-assistance burden on each state. In Minnesota, for example, where Wal-Mart has 20,997 employees, the public burden totaled $92.7 million per year. Thats $92.7 million Wal-Mart isnt paying in wages or benefits, but that instead is being borne by taxpayers taxpayers who, of course, include Wal-Mart workers.
July 21, 2014
by Sarah Jaffe
TakeAction Minnesota, a network that promotes economic and racial justice in the state, wants to make that fee a reality. Its developing the framework for a bill that it hopes will be introduced in 2015 by state legislators who have worked with the network in the past. As conceived, the bad business fee legislation would require companies to disclose how many of their employees are receiving public assistance from the state or federal government. Companies would then pay a fine based on the de facto subsidies they receive by externalizing labor costs onto taxpayers.
TakeAction Minnesotas plan is one prong of a larger national effort. As progressive organizations grapple with how to turn years of public outrage over income inequality into policies for structural change, a network of labor and community organizing groups has seized upon the bad business fee as a solution that might take off.
...
Just how much money are low-wage businesses draining from local, state and federal coffers? A study released in April by Americans for Tax Fairness, a coalition of more than 400 organizations that advocate progressive tax reform, estimated that Wal-Mart alone costs taxpayers $6.2 billion annually in public assistance. That report draws from a 2013 study by the Democratic staff of the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which estimated that Wal-Mart cost taxpayers, on average, between $3,015 and $5,815 per worker. For a hypothetical 300-person Wal-Mart Supercenter in Wisconsin, that added up to as much as $1.75 million in public subsidies per year. Those taxpayer dollars come in the form of joint federal-state programs such as Medicaid and the School Breakfast Program, as well as federal ones such as the National School Lunch Program, the Section 8 Housing Program, the Earned Income Tax, Low Income Home Energy Assistance and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, also known as food stamps).
Americans for Tax Fairness used the House Democrats study to extrapolate Wal-Marts public-assistance burden on each state. In Minnesota, for example, where Wal-Mart has 20,997 employees, the public burden totaled $92.7 million per year. Thats $92.7 million Wal-Mart isnt paying in wages or benefits, but that instead is being borne by taxpayers taxpayers who, of course, include Wal-Mart workers.
Emphasis mine.
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And maybe make them incorporate some sort of Scarlet Letter into their logo
Jackpine Radical
Jul 2014
#15
Do you think these corporations aren't already hiring the cheapest labor they can find?
Scuba
Jul 2014
#46
But the people that are more reliant on welfare are no longer the cheapest labor.
possiblylogical
Jul 2014
#47
The problem here is employers shifting their costs to the taxpayers. There needs to be a penalty ..
Scuba
Jul 2014
#50
Perhaps "penalizing" is a poor choice of words on my part. What the law really does ...
Scuba
Jul 2014
#57
No. When designing rules and regulations, we should make sure to consider incentives.
possiblylogical
Jul 2014
#51
In the real world, employers are shifting billions in costs to the taxpayers. Want to fix it?
Scuba
Jul 2014
#79
When people apply for jobs they reveal information about themselves through the application process.
possiblylogical
Jul 2014
#86
My argument is that there is really no reason to use this method as a solution to the problem..
possiblylogical
Jul 2014
#87
I think this one's obvious. The corporations don't care if the workers get taxpayer help ....
Scuba
Jul 2014
#39
Why didn't democrats fix the minimum wage when they controlled the whole government?
joeglow3
Jul 2014
#44
Where would the demarcation line of low wage/fair wage be drawn...and who would decide that ?nt
clarice
Jul 2014
#60
From what I can gather it would be based on a wage that still leave the employee ...
Scuba
Jul 2014
#61
So would the fine equal the subsidies or be something like .0005% of the subsidies?
valerief
Jul 2014
#64