From National Employment Law Project (http://www.nelp.org/(:
At a time when highly profitable corporations should be making it a priority to improve worker pay, a new report from NELP and the Roosevelt Institute finds that U.S. corporations spent most of their profits—nearly 60 percent between 2015 and 2017—on stock buybacks instead.
Corporations buy back their own stocks as a way to boost share prices; it creates a windfall for executives and speculators but leaves little to invest in workers’ wages and long-term growth.
Money spent on stock buybacks would go a long way toward helping workers who struggle to make ends meet. McDonald’s, for example, could pay each of its 1.9 million workers almost $4K more per year with the money it spent on stock buybacks; Starbucks could deliver a $7K raise; and Home Depot, Lowes, and CVS could give every worker a raise of at least $18K.
“Our report calls into question the idea that corporations can’t afford to pay their workers better,” says Irene Tung, NELP senior researcher and report co-author.
Spending on stock buybacks has reached eye-popping record levels since the passage of the Trump GOP tax cuts in December.
Read more at https://www.nelp.org/publication/curbing-stock-buybacks-crucial-step-raising-worker-pay-reducing-inequality/.
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