The problem with our employment stats The Hill, December 11, 2021
by Stephen Kent

Despite all the buzz about the “Great Resignation,” labor shortages, and 10 million unfilled job openings, here’s the underlying reality: Many tens of millions of Americans are jobless for lack of job opportunity….

For many years now, even with low official unemployment, fewer than half of American adults have full-time jobs, and only about half the hours that could potentially be worked are actually being worked. People with disabilities, people of color, seniors, youth, women, and immigrants are disproportionately affected.

Why Payroll Tax Cut Opponents May Want to Reconsider The Hill, August 9,2020
by Stephen Kent

Before the Trump administration, payroll tax shifting attracted support from smart progressives and conservatives alike. Trump’s payroll tax proposals have drawn bipartisan opposition. But payroll tax shifting is something both sides ought to agree on, because it could achieve economic justice and fiscal responsibility at the same time.

Congress could do worse than to accept payroll tax suspension to get a stimulus deal, provided they replace the revenue with other, non-labor taxes. It wouldn’t cost anything or take any resources away from other coronavirus relief. But it would create the conditions for putting tens of millions of Americans back to work.

Eliminating Payroll Tax Is Key to Job and Economic Growth Law360, March 24,2020
by William Drayton

As the country debates the economic and employment implications of the coronavirus, Get America Working! founder Bill Drayton makes the case that a change in payroll taxes is key to long term growth.

A tax cut Democrats and Republicans could agree on? The payroll levy Washington Post, March 6, 2020
by Eugene Ludwig

On Sunday, March 8, The Washington Post ran an oped by our colleague and GAW! advisory council member Eugene Ludwig, arguing we should replace payroll taxes to stimulate jobs and growth. On Monday, March 9, after the worst day on Wall Street in a decade, President Trump said he'd discuss a "very substantial" payroll tax cut with Congressional Republicans to stimulate the economy. 

Enacting a substantial payroll tax cut would be a start. But to contain economic shocks like coronavirus, and create the jobs and growth to make our economy healthy for more Americans, we'll need something more: a payroll tax shift that replaces the revenue with non-labor taxes. 

“At a moment when Democrats are rightfully preoccupied with the scourge of inequality, and Republicans remain focused on cutting taxes, replacing the payroll levy would serve both progressive and conservative interests,” Ludwig writes. “Fiscal hawks in both parties should insist that payroll tax cuts be offset by something that doesn’t penalize labor."

Half the population is out of the game El Pais, November 10, 2019
Interview with GAW & Ashoka Founder Bill Drayton

Payroll Tax Has Become A Monster: It needs to be replaced Opinion, Newsweek, July 11, 2019
by Eugene Ludwig

Rosy Jobs Reports Are Misleading: Crisis is coming, and fixes are few The Hill,  Dec. 18, 2018  

The Problem with Cuomo's Payroll Tax Gotham Gazette,  April 10, 2018

New York, Shift Tax Burden Away from Employment, not towards it The Hill,  March 28, 2018  
by Stephen Kent

This article addresses the attempt by New York State to protect its taxpayers from the impacts of the new federal cap on deductibility of state and local taxes. 

Payroll taxes, not income taxes mean more to many households Marketplace, November 2, 2017

Much of the discussion around tax reform these last few weeks has focused on income tax and details like tax brackets and tax rates. Meanwhile, 40 percent of taxpayers don’t pay any income tax, while almost all of them see a payroll tax come out of their paychecks. It’s usually listed as FICA and helps fund Social Security and Medicare.  Listen to the story

Telling Truth to Tax Reformers The Hill March 6, 2017
Editor's Note: This opinion piece is by Get America Working! founder Bill Drayton.

Unfortunately, the employment crisis President Trump evoked in his speech to Congress is not fake news; it’s very real. But there is a way to avoid all the old fights and turn it around. Mass joblessness exists notwithstanding low official U.S. unemployment. The President told Congress an under-...Read More

Rethinking how Social Security is financed to foster job growth The Hill, October 13, 2016
Editor's Note: In this bi-partisan blog post, former Republican Senator and Labor Secretary Bill Brock and Democratic Leadership Council founder Al From discuss Get America Working!'s framework change for tax reform.    As thoroughly frustrating as this presidential race has been, its... Read More

Payroll Tax: Employment Taxes Fall Globally, But Remain ‘Surprisingly High,' Study Finds Bureau of National Affairs, March 1, 2016
Editor's Note:  This news story about a report on global payroll taxes states, "Not only could the high employer costs undermine efforts to cut unemployment, they could adversely affect real incomes, hamper labor market flexibility and make it very difficult for firms to take advantage of...Read More

Making a fair deal on carbon Boston Globe, January 15, 2016
Former Secretary of Energy Chu is one of a number of Republican and Democratic officials, scientists and economists calling for a revenue neutral carbon tax to address climate change.  He notes, " No new bureaucracies should be created to return the proceeds, and refund mechanisms can be done through decreases in withholding, or payroll,...Read More >>

Benefits for the Rest of Us: The growing ranks of contingent workers need a new deal Washington Monthly, January 1, 2016
by Stephen Hill

Steven Hill describes the changing US labor force with increasing numbers of workers being contract or "gig" workers with no benefits.  These workers have no company to pay half of their payroll taxes. They pay it all, further lowering their wages. Read More

The Problem With Eliminating the Payroll Tax: Rand Paul and Ted Cruz want to end the payroll tax, but haven't explained what comes next.
US News & World Report    December 28, 2015
American Enterprise Institute economist, Allan Viard, describes both the downsides of payroll taxes and the need to protect funding support for Social Security and Medicare if they are to be cut.  Get America Working!'s answer is to tax pollution and resource waste, with a Carbon Tax being one of the easiest approaches -- with multiple...Read More

Tax Reform to Warm Less and Work More Reuters  December 15, 2015
The climate agreement reached in Paris is a great leap forward, but it’s widely acknowledged that it lacks specificity about how we’ll achieve the aspiration to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The mechanisms by which the US (and other countries) will accomplish it remain to be worked out.  While US negotiators...Read More

Why not cut the payroll tax? National Review  February 13, 2015
Conservatives are having a healthy debate about the design of an effective and appealing tax-reform program. Republican senators Mike Lee and Marco Rubio have proposed a sweeping plan that is the focal point of the discussion.  Read More

Raise the gas tax. A lot.
Washington Post    January 8, 2015
by Charles Krauthammer

Editor's note:  In this article Charles Krauthammer, a conservative concerned about US reliance on imported oil, makes the case for a gas tax increase to be used to cut payroll taxes. He notes,  "It’s win-win. Employment taxes are a drag on job creation. Reducing them not only promotes growth but advances fairness, FICA being a... Read More

2015’s Winning Coalition CSR Wire  January 7, 2015
by Hazel Henderson

Editor's note:  In this article, economist and journalist Hazel Henderson points out the diverse political forces that "want taxes shifted away from incomes and payrolls to all kinds of pollution and other activities harming human health and community wellbeing." The incoming Republican Congress in the United States, elected by the smallest...Read More

The Right Tax Now Has the Right Time Washington Post, January 5, 2015

Editor's Note:  Former Treasury Secretary and Harvard Economist L. Summers argues the reduction in oil prices "makes it possible to impose a substantial carbon tax without burdening consumers" and suggests "a meaningful reduction in the payroll tax" as an option for using the revenues.       The case for carbon taxes... Read More

Work More and Warm Less: Integrating Jobs and Climate Solutions Triple Pundit, September 24, 2014

As citizens and world leaders converge on New York City seeking a way to address climate change, across the U.S. tens of millions are also out of work. The political challenge of achieving a climate policy consensus is hard. There is no broad agreement that the U.S. even has a climate problem. But there is bedrock consensus that we have an... Read More

Let's Give Labor Its Day ... And Its Due LinkedIn Influencer, September 1, 2014
by Rob Wolcott

Editor's Note:  In this blog post Get America Working's Senior Economic Adviser makes the case for increasing working American's wages by giving them a rebate against their payroll taxes -- a measure that would also boost job creation.  Today marks 120 years of celebrating Labor Day as a national holiday, acknowledging the contributions... Read More >>

The Great Shrinking Workforce Businessweek, July 24, 2014
Editor's Note - We would note that many Americans laid off in the Great Recession who were eligible for Social Security took that "retirement" as a lifeline, not a preference for not working. So, the number of of adults not working or looking for work is worse than even this article assumes. In 2007, 66 percent of American adults were either... Read More >>

From Putin, a Blessing in Disguise New York Times, March 18, 2014
by

Editor's Note: In this piece Mr. Friedman suggests a revenue neutral tax shift -- imposing a tax on carbon to reduce payroll or corporate taxes -- as part of a clean energy strategy. We would note that this shift with a payroll tax offset is also a job creation strategy. There are a lot of people who seem intent on restarting the Cold War — in...Read More

Enough Stuck Economies! LinkedIn Influencer, March 11, 2014
by Bill Drayton

What would you do as a leader if the costs of your workforce went down 17 percent? And if, at the same time, the cost of all your other inputs (energy, materials, land, pollution) went up by roughly the same amount? Together these two shifts would change the relative price of people versus things, any economy’s most basic tradeoff, by roughly 35...Read More

It's time for Republicans to attack payroll taxes, Washington Examiner February 27, 2014

When Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney infamously wrote off much of the electorate at a 2012 fundraising event, he argued that, “47 percent of Americans pay no income tax. So our message of low taxes doesn't connect.” Given that attitude, it isn't surprising that President Obama trounced Romney.. Read More

Problems with Economic Indicators: Leave the big numbers to Janet Yellen, National Public Radio: Marketplace, February 12, 2014

Editor’s Note: NPR’s Marketplace is 25 years old. They are doing a series called 25 for 25. This is the first – looking at economic indicators points out the undercount of the BLS "unemployment" statistic.  The article below is much condensed from the full interview which you can listen to using the link above.    There's a...Read More

Ignore the Unemployment Rate. There's a better jobs indicator. National Public Radio: Marketplace, February 6, 2014
by Sabri Ben-Achour

Editor's Note: Get America Working! has long argued that the official monthly "unemployment" statistic is a significant undercount. We think the labor force participation rate is more informative. Here's another perspective. You can listen to this radio story at the link above. This is a transcript. The monthly jobs report comes out tomorrow....Read More

A Carbon Tax America Could Live With New York Times, August 31, 2013
by N. Gregory Mankiw

This summer, the Obama administration released the President’s Climate Action Plan. It is a grab bag of regulations and policy initiatives aimed at reducing the nation’s carbon emissions, which many scientists believe contribute to global warming. This got me to thinking: What might I do to reduce my own carbon emissions? Here are some... Read More