Dear C.E.O.: Before You Give to Charity, Look at Your Own Workplace

Ever watch the TV Undercover Boss? Every episode is the same. Overpaid CEO begins to realize how hard and how poorly employees are paid and at the end makes a generous gift to the hardest working for their years of working at low wages. Wake up America!

I always felt that instead of having a Christmas party where you have to get dressed up and eat at a country club where the important people and the little people still don't mingle those $$$ should be disbursed as a Christmas bonus instead.

The Bezos quote is pathetic. "Let's make raising the minimum wage a competition among businesses. I dare you." How about doing the right thing without its being a contest, Jeff?

I like the sentiment of this piece, however, including Mark Bertolini, former CEO of Aetna who received a $500,000,000 (not a typo 1/2 a billion dollars!) exit package when he left Aetna after the merger with CVS, iis wrong. A half a billion dollars in compensation for one person while millions of Americans can't afford health insurance or medical care? Aetna (and CVS apparently) is part of the problem. He and Aetna deserve zero good press.

But wait, the economy is doing wonderfully, isn't it?

Every time I see the David Koch Theatre at Lincoln Center I don’t think “what a great guy”. What I think is “what an undertaxed guy”. Society should not be dependent on rapacious sociopaths like Koch for the arts, hospitals, university funding, or medical research. All of these are important social needs that should be funded publicly, through taxation. People like Koch have accumulated much of their outsized wealth through regulatory capture (corruption); purchase of political influence (bribery) and monopolistic power (financial manipulation). In the case of the Kochs, the price of his wealth is a poorer, more polluted, more corrupt country. I give no thanks to the crumbs coming from this toxic cake.

But there is no tax write offs for helping your own employees and there's no good publicity either.

At my old company the tax cuts and tax loopholes have created a situation where they pay zero in taxes and they took all the extra money and put it toward a stock buyback scheme that increased the earnings and the stock price but still didn't increase wages one bit. During my time with the company I was hit up for many worthy charities that my company took credit for because, it's not just the tax deduction, it's the show about how the company was giving back to the community and to the needy without having to open their purses. The only alternative was to be miserly and not give to those experiencing hard times. It's not just the deductions they were after, it is advertising, they even sponsored golf tournaments, race cars and football stadiums while ignoring the needs of the people who made them rich, their workers. I'm told that everyone who remains greet each other with Fleece Navidad during their busiest time of the year.

If the rich paid their taxes and paid a living wage to their employees, most people would not need charity. It's ironic that their very stinginess is what causes them to give what are basically more tax deductions. On top of that, taxpayers have to fund public assistance for their underpaid employees. This isn't voluntary, isn't a write-off, and my taxes eat up a huge portion of my income so that I can subsidize billionaires.

My uncle was a partner in a very large civil engineering firm and he told his wife that he felt it was their duty as a good corporate citizen that they support different charities . He company that is, not the employees. My husband worked for Mobil Oil and they supported a number of charities, at least until the bean counters took over. They also had a program that if you donated money they would match it They felt it benefited everyone .

Capitalism is broken, with technology and the ability to change contracts unilaterally, businesses need less workers. The money they don’t have to spend lets them lock out competition and keep wages low. This is feudalism, plain and simple - close to zero chance of getting out, shrinking life span, and little power for the lower classes. No wonder they are fascinated with guns and stopping outsiders who they now compete with. No wonder they prefer a broken POTUS to the old guard that allowed this to happen. When capital doesn’t create jobs capitalism is just a word.

My employer asks us to contribute to the annual campaign. There’s a lot of pressure, even on the lowest paid people. Why not make a huge donation to a charitable organization, in honor of the employees, in the amount previously set as a goal for employee contributions? Then welcome employees to add to that as they see fit.

Larry David had an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where he took a wry look at the vanity of charity donation. I suppose the rich think 'charity' a pointless act if it doesn't have publicity and/or a tax deduction attached.

Yes, but seen from a capitalist's point of view a better bottom line and shareholder value comes with a tax deduction, while charity to one's employees creates extended expectations that cause moral loss when not meant, and generally upsets the wage market of other employers. I don't give ordinarily give to 170(c) eligible charities or charity umbrellas such as United Way. Most of them are business sponsored, with business leaders running the show, precisely because they are tax deduction driven (PR is an added benefit). Up to 50% of adjusted gross income can be reduced by most cash donations and other kinds get 20-30%. Since many large corporations are able to show low income on their tax forms, it's a real boost and scam that I don't wish to support.

Yes but come on you can’t leave it up to Big Business or it will never happen - it is a policy issue that needs to be addressed through legislated access to healthcare, childcare, education, pension and other public benefits that are provided for all citizens in many countries.

If CEOs want to help their employees and the needy in this country, they need to stand up and demand Medicare for All. This would save their companies money, eliminate the annual labor negotiations over health care, and dramatically improve millions of lives. Business leaders are the key to making this a reality.

Maybe the Walton Family Foundation needs to focus on their Walmart employees and pay livable wages, decent hours and healthcare. They can afford it.

Yes, and before our leaders and heads of companies tries to help people in 3rd world countries, look to the millions of poor, underserved children and families in America.

Wage expense is also tax deductible, but regardless, the speaker has the wrong audience. It's easy to forget that CEOs work for shareholders. Any above market compensation plan for labor would have to be, at least tacitly, approved by them. And what if, then, wealthy managers decided to cut back their charitable donations after increasing wages for their employees? Would this be considered progress? Its so easy to make speeches like this around the holiday time, and so naive. If it were less so it may perhaps make the author sound like a champion of the working poor, which is how he seems so thirsty to be thought of.

When corp taxes were fair, the CEO would pay a good wage. The wage is a tax deduction. It made the middle class. With the cuts in taxes, the discrepancy in wages became all out of proportion. The CEO simply keeps the money for himself.

Very reminiscent of doctors volunteering in poor countries, but not in poor neighborhoods.

Unfortunately, under the current tax structure, charitable organizations depend on corporate donations, even if the the motivation behind them is not entirely charitable. But this speaks to charitable works in general. Charity begins at home. I know people who make a big show of doing “clean and tidy” public charity works — collecting toys for kids at Christmas, canned goods and clothing for the poor, selling items as a fundraiser — but neglect their own families, and cross the street rather that get near a transient. I know “missionary” workers who zoom off to exotic locales to supposedly help the poor (often doing nothing more than teaching English), but at home in the States they speak of immigrants storming the border, and they won’t get anywhere near a soup kitchen. Charity should be an everyday practice. My community has a lot of services for the homeless, but when I tried to find a place to volunteer on Christmas Day I was shocked to learn that the soup kitchen doesn’t serve a meal on the 25th. If ever there was day that they should, it is Christmas! Quiet, private giving is a beautiful thing. A local Secret Santa program here matches donors with families in need (families and donors are screened). Donors get a write up on the family, so you know their difficulties (and might avoid an inappropriate gift), with each child’s interests noted. You buy and deliver gifts for all. Don’t get so stuck on changing the world that you forget the needs of those around you.

That's today's philanthropy. Lobby the government to cut your taxes, shifting the burden to workers, since you are a "job creator." Push the government to deregulate so you don't have to add expense for worker safety or environmental protection and to cut services for the "undeserving" needy. Pay your employees as little as possible even if its not a living wage. And then donate a little to the symphony to show what a great guy you are.

I taught intro courses in social welfare policy for 20 years. In my readings about various religions and expectations for supporting vulnerable populations, one of the *profound* differences between Christianity and Judaism was charity (Christian) versus justice (Jewish tzedakah). Charity depends upon the benevolence of the individual; charity outside of tithing to one’s church is unreliable as a means of addressing injustices. Charity is the “kind” thing to do. The Jewish justice/tzedakah is a command to develop a structurally just society. Tzedakah is the “right” thing to do. Jewish practices include other justice expectations, such as the Jubilee Year. As I said, charity vs justice is a profound difference between the two faiths.

If only the very rich would share their good fortune with the people who helped them make it, we wouldn't be talking about wealth disparities. Most really don't want to share, or think their low level employees don't deserve it. Do they really think they're worth multi-millions/YEAR!?

Economic injustice leads to political injustice. Wouldn't it be nice if this capitalistic system were less unequal, so that the need for charity, even philanthropy, became unnecessary? Charity while we exploit labor may represent nothing but "guilt money"...after the fact.

The boards of these huge companies need to understand not only that their employees are worth more than they're being paid but that their CEO is worth less. Then things might balance out.

The reality of employees putting pressure on CEO’s to recognize what the CEO’s can do better by their employees this is never going to happen. Most employees live in fear of losing their jobs if they dare speak up. CEO’s need to do the right thing period. Henry Ford was once asked who he paid his employees so well and his answer was “ so they can afford to buy my cars” This is called enlightened self interest. Until CEOs are either capable of thinking the way Henry Ford did, it won’t happen until they are forced or embarrassed into a living wage, a real living wage not just a minimum wage

This article is spot on. I owned a business in Wisconsin for many years and gave to many local charities. However I also made sure my employees were well taken care of. If you treat your employees fairly and compensate them adequately its amazing how well the business prospers. Happy employees are the key to business success.

This country is becoming the end of the family Monopoly board game. One guy has Park Place and everybody else has to quit because they can’t afford the rents. Game over billionaires, you won. Now what?

Perhaps if Darren Walker were not being paid $1 million plus in annual compensation, there would be more money available for those in need.