Latest news on diversity and equality issues in business and personal finance.
US tax policy deprives the government of revenue and overwhelmingly serves the interests of the rich After the House passed its version of Donald Trump ’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) last year – the one that paired a $5tn-plus tax cut with $1tn-plus of cuts from food stamps and Medicaid – the House speaker, Mike Johnson , explained that “this is not giving tax cuts to the millionaires”. The…
Tech billionaire’s $158.3bn deal an outlier in report showing widening gap of CEO to worker pay at top companies Elon Musk received over 2.5m times as much compensation at Tesla as the company’s average worker, according to a new report on the growing gap between top corporate executives and their workers. Musk’s $158.3bn pay deal was an outlier but came as the gap between CEO and worker pay…
Prof Wyn Evans, who raised concerns over treatment of female staff at Institute of Astronomy, was subject to ‘baseless’ investigation, judge rules A University of Cambridge whistleblower who alleged bullying of female staff inside the university’s Institute of Astronomy has won a tribunal against his employer. Prof Wyn Evans told a tribunal hearing in June that the institute suffered from “a bad…
Historian Kim Phillips-Fein’s book Country of Lords looks back at the many men who have tried to fight against egalitarianism, from John Adams to Peter Thiel The historian Kim Phillips-Fein’s new book is published amid celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the declaration of independence and its truth “self-evident, that all men are created equal”. Country of Lords, however, is a history of…
Any new tax on the rich won’t raise much money unless many of the exceptions and loopholes are dealt with In this new era of rampaging oligarchs, nothing may seem as satisfying as slapping a tax on Elon Musk ’s new trillion-dollar fortune. What most bothers Americans about federal taxes is that billionaires don’t pay their fair share . As the race to develop artificial intelligence mints more…
Ultrarich face backlash as billionaire tax in California makes it to the ballot and Americans organize for higher wages The day that Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire , Gilberto Rubio, a security officer in the San Francisco area, said he was thinking about how to cut back on meals to save money. Jessica Ordeñana, a bartender in midtown Manhattan, was worrying about air conditioning…
White-collar work is at risk across the board, including at elite consulting firms that used to be a pathway to the 1% Consulting is a delicate contract: endure two challenging, formative years – and in return, get a golden ticket to anywhere. Firms like McKinsey tout themselves as the “ CEO factory ”, and boast they’re “ not surprised ” to be consistently named the best place for future leaders.…
Elon Musk is a beneficiary of America’s lopsided prosperity – does the country have any appetite for redistribution? As Barack Obama’s presidency was coming to a close, Jason Furman, then chairman of the president’s council of economic advisers, laid out the strides his administration had made to curb the nation’s exorbitant income inequality in “the largest investments in reducing inequality…
While the stock market booms for the rich, cost of living is soaring for everyone else Since 2020, the stock market has more than doubled. Americans who own substantial financial assets are reveling in economic success. For everyone else, the economy feels very different. This summer, the average family will spend nearly $800 just to keep their home cool, almost 40% more than in 2020 and up 10.5%…
Tory leader takes aim at police guidance and says more black boys searched means more black lives saved UK politics live – latest updates Kemi Badenoch has argued that Britain took a wrong turn after the landmark Macpherson report into the racist killing of Stephen Lawrence, and said that it didn’t matter how many young black boys were stopped and searched by police. The Conservative leader made…
Fleet Street’s first female advertising director rose to the top of a male-dominated industry and championed other women throughout her career Caroline Marland, the Guardian’s trailblazing former managing director who broke glass ceilings and helped others do the same, has died at the age of 80. Marland, who became Fleet Street’s first female advertising director, was a pioneer in spotting the…
Making women more powerful in my farm business and closing the gender pay gap was not just the right thing to do – it has brought commercial benefits On International Women’s Day this year, I found myself in Selfridges listening to my wife, Geetie, talk about her experiences as a childhood communard, mother, restaurateur, environmental campaigner and, of course, as a woman. I was one of two men in…
Meg O’Neill will be first woman to serve as CEO of 117-year-oil firm when joining from Woodside Energy in April The incoming chief executive of BP will take home at least £11.7m this year after joining the embattled oil company from a rival, more than double the pay packet earned by her predecessor. Meg O’Neill will join BP from the Australian oil company Woodside Energy in April as the company’s…
A citizen referendum, only the second of its kind in Georgia history, seeks to block a zoning amendment Ire Gene Grovner stood behind his house on a recent morning, between chicken pens on one side and rows of winter collard greens on the other, holding a knife and skinning a raccoon splayed across a wood post. “The meat is good roasted,” Grovner said. He pointed to the collards, a burst of green…
New York’s financial elite compare the city to crime-riddled Gotham after democratic socialist bests Cuomo in Democratic mayoral primary When Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old self-described socialist, won New York’s mayoral Democratic nomination last week over a seasoned but scandal-scarred veteran, the city’s financial elite had a meltdown. This was the start of “hot commie summer” in the city, New…
Middle Eastern and north African business owners couldn’t get certified in the US – but a new wave of entrepreneurs is changing that Since the 1970s, many minority business owners have been able to certify their businesses through organizations like the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) or the Small Business Administration (SBA). Until last July, one group of business owners…
Millions of workers have been leaving jobs that offer long hours and low pay – and for many the release has been exhilarating One morning in October, Lynn woke up and decided she would quit her job on the spot that day. The decision to quit was the climax of a reckoning that began at the start of the pandemic when she was first laid off from a job she had been in for three years. “I’ve always had…