Menu

Media

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.

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

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

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

New Demos Study Reveals Fast-food Industry with Greatest CEO-to-Worker Pay Disparity in Economy

(New York, NY) – As shareholders prepare for annual meetings, Demos released a new study today that finds that the fast-food industry has the greatest CEO-to-worker pay disparity in our economy, with ratios exceeding 1,000-to-1. The study finds that the growing disparity within fast-food threatens economic growth and shareholder investment. 

Press release/statement

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

Fast-Food CEOs Make 1,000 Times the Pay of the Average Fast-Food Worker

Economic inequality in the U.S. can be quantified in all sorts of ways. The 1 percent account for almost 40 percent of the country’s wealth.

In the media
Susan Berfield

Fast Food CEOs Make 1,000 Times More Than Their Typical Workers: Report

David Novak, the CEO of YUM! Brands, which owns Taco Bell and KFC, took home more than $22 million last year after exercising stock options, according to proxy statements. The average full-time fast-food worker, by comparison, would have made about $19,000 on the year. [...]

In the media
Dave Jamieson

Study: Fast food CEOs paid millions more than workers

Fast food CEOs were paid more than 1,200 times the average fast food worker in 2012, according to a new study released Tuesday by Demos, a public policy group.

On a conference call to discuss the report New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer said such a wide income disparity could affect the city's pension fund, which holds millions of shares in several fast food companies. And it could trickle down to affect every day New Yorkers, he said. [...]

In the media
Alison Fox