A Year of Delightful Egalitarian Imagination

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http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/12/25-0


The year’s boldest move to limit inequality? That may have been the November bid in Switzerland to cap via referendum CEO compensation at 12 times worker wages.

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Attention, share-the-wealth shoppers: Consumers committed to sustainability can buy forest-friendly paper. But what about consumers who want to strike a blow against corporate pay inequality? Toronto activists have an alternative to offer: Wagemark, a new initiative that offers a special insignia to enterprises that pay their top execs no more than eight times what they pay workers. Canada’s top 100 CEOs currently take home 235 times Canadian average worker pay. Big-time U.S. CEOs average 354 times worker pay.

Nursing hopes for a more equal future: Top officials of the Massachusetts Nurses Association have just submitted petitions — with over 100,000 signatures — calling for a new state law that levies fines against any state hospital, profit or nonprofit, that compensates its CEO over 100 times the hospital’s lowest-paid worker wage. If state lawmakers don’t act on the petition, the nurses plan to collect the 11,000 additional signatures necessary to place their proposal on next November’s 2014 statewide ballot.

An Alpine assault on privilege: In Switzerland this fall, young activists fell short in their attempt to limit CEO compensation to no more than 12 times worker wages. In a national referendum, voters rejected the proposal — but only after a massive corporate ad blitz. Just weeks before the late November voting, the “1:12 Initiative for Fair Pay” was actually even in the polls. Expect more on the 1:12 front in the year ahead. Activists in Spain, France, and Germany are already discussing similar campaigns.

Irish eyes smiling — on a wealth tax: In the Great Recession’s wake, austerity budgets are squeezing working families the world over. But instead of slashing public spending on programs the public needs, two Irish think tanks are pointing out, governments could be taxing the enormous wealth that has concentrated at society’s economic summit. A mere 0.6 percent annual levy on household wealth over 1 million euros, note the TASC and Nevin Economic Research Institute think tanks, could recast Ireland’s entire fiscal landscape.