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We are changing the conversation around our democracy and economy by telling influential new stories about our country and its people. Get our latest media updates here.

When So Many Workers Hate Their Jobs, We're All Miserable

It's no secret that American consumers are fed up with the quality of service they get from any number of retail and restaurant establishments. Going to a fast food joint is especially unpleasant, as Demos documents in its new report, Fast Food Failure.
Blog
David Callahan

Fatter Cats: Executive Pay and American Inequality

Executive pay has risen dramatically—both in absolute terms and in relation to median wages—across the last generation. The spike in executive salaries is both a key driver of inequality at the top end of the income spectrum (about half of the “1 percent” are executives or managers at non-financial firms) and a symbolic marker of social norms in our “winner-take-all” economy. Conservative economists have tried to spin this as a triumph of market forces, manifesting the ability of superstar innovators to pull away from the pack in a global, wired economy.

In the media
Colin Gordon

Fast-Food CEOs Make 1,200 Times as Much as One of Their Workers—and They Want to Keep it That Way

David Novak is the chief executive of Yum! Brands, the parent company that runs Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC. Last year, while Yum! Brands and other restaurant companies lobbied against raising the minimum wage, Novak made at least $22 million—more than 1,000 times what the average fast-food worker makes in a year. In return for paying him so much, Yum! got a tax break.

In the media
Zoë Carpenter

Why Don't Corporations Care More About Their Image on Economic Fairness?

This week, Apple loudly touted its fealty to environmentalism, rolling out an updated website on what it's doing to be a greener company and playing up its progress in reducing its carbon footprint and removing toxins from its products. This blitz included expensive full-page newspaper ads in places like the Wall Street Journal. 
 
Apple, of course, is just one of many companies that has put a lot of effort into improving its environmental record. Most famously, Walmart has been talking this talk since 2005.
Blog
David Callahan

Pay Inequality Is a Threat to McDonald's Bottom Line

McDonald’s is losing customers.

Blog
Catherine Ruetschlin

Demos President on Importance of Diversity in Higher Education

In response to yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling, which upheld a Michigan state law banning the consideration of race or ethnicity as a factor among state college admissions, Demos President Heather McGhee issued the following statement:

The country should be recommitting to diversity and inclusion, not retreating.

Press release/statement

Fast Food CEO Pay Report Highlights Disparity Between Common Worker's Earnings

The news has not been kind to the fast food industry over the past few years. From labor strikes to claims of wage theft, companies like McDonald's and Burger King have taken increasing criticism for treatment of workers and their low wage jobs. Now a new report from New York-based think tank Demos has added fuel to the fire.

In the media
Eric Reed

Returning to the Democracy of the Founding Fathers is Not a Good Look

The recent op-ed from NAACP LDF president Sherrilyn Ifill on the recent McCutcheon ruling is a must read. In it, she implores us to focus in on the “devastating aspect” of Chief Justice John Roberts's majority opinion ruling as summarized in his opening sentences:

"There is no right more basic in our democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders.

Blog
Brentin Mock

PRESS CALL Featuring Comptroller Scott Stringer: New Demos Report Shows Fast-Food With Greatest CEO-to-Worker Pay Disparity in Economy

(New York, NY) – Today, national public policy organization Demos will release a new report examining the latest CEO-to-worker compensation ratios of the largest publicly traded fast food companies and shows that the fast-food industry has the greatest pay disparity in our economy, with ratios exceeding 1,000-to-1. 

Press release/statement