Our country is facing a reality of underpaid workers and overpaid CEOs and Wall Street executives. The next two years are key to moving toward an equitable, racially just, and sustainable economy.

President Biden must use his power to protect workers and reign in corporate greed, by making sure our tax dollars go to companies that treat workers fairly.

Take action today and Tell President Biden to Spend Public Money for the Public Good by adding your name now.

Full Letter Text:

To: President Biden, Department of Commerce, Department of Energy, Department of Treasury, National Economic Council, Office of Management and Budget.

Dear President Biden,

These next two years will be critical for determining whether our public investments -- and our economy as a whole -- will be leveraged for the public good or co-opted to line the pockets of overpaid Wall Street and corporate executives.

We applaud your goal of “building an economy from the bottom up and the middle out” and the critical steps you have already taken to ensure public funds further that mission. For example, your actions to:

• enact major infrastructure, clean energy, and manufacturing investment policies with scale and potential to revitalize the economy;

• require federal contractors to adopt a $15 minimum wage (increased to $16.20 in 2023 to account for inflation, with tipped employees receiving $13.75 per hour);

• require project labor agreements for large-scale federal construction projects;

• require or incentivize prevailing wage, apprenticeship, and improved Buy America and domestic content provisions for public spending on infrastructure, manufacturing, and many tax credits;

• enhance fair pathways into stable jobs by providing federal service contract workers the right of first refusal of employment; and

• launch the Justice40 Initiative to deliver 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal investments to polluted and disadvantaged communities.

However, there is much more to do.

Over $1.9 trillion in public investments will be disbursed through the implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act. Federal contracts worth billions more flow every year to private companies that employ an estimated 25% of U.S. private sector workers.

These funds represent a huge opportunity to use the power of the public purse to discourage a corporate model that has harmed workers by prioritizing Wall Street payouts and massive executive compensation packages over good jobs, investments in innovation, and public transparency and accountability.

We urge your administration to use every tool in the executive action toolbox to instead incentivize business practices that will shift our economy towards greater equity and sustainability.

We, therefore, urge you to take three critical steps:

1. SUBSIDIES AND GRANTS: Condition federal funds going to private businesses on bright-line rules restricting stock buybacks and reining in excessive executive compensation, and ensure full and effective implementation of pro-worker commitments such as the creation of good, family-supporting jobs with workers’ rights, training, and other advancement programs.

2. FEDERAL CONTRACTS: Give preferential treatment to companies with reasonable gaps between CEO and worker pay, establish bright-line rules curbing the use of stock buybacks, require expanded paid family and sick leave policies and other pro-worker policies, and extend the administration’s new project labor agreement requirement for construction projects to contractors that provide goods and other services.

3. FEDERAL FUNDS TO STATE/LOCAL GOVERNMENTS: Revise existing regulations to aid states and localities receiving federal funds to condition disbursement of those funds on commitments that further their goals of equitable economic development, including by requiring project labor agreements, local hiring, and other measures that benefit workers, communities, and local economies instead of wealthy Wall Street and corporate executives.

We hope to see these recommendations implemented as soon as possible.

cc:
Department of Commerce
Department of Energy
Department of Treasury
National Economic Council
Office of Management and Budget