Episode 2: Sarah Anderson, Dir. Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies

Welcome to the Unrig America podcast. Host, author, and journalist Sasha Abramsky will be talking with policy experts, advocates, and workers about what rising inequality in today's United States looks like and means on the ground -- and about what can be done to reverse course. On this edition of Unrig America, I was in conversation with Sarah Anderson, the Global Economy Project Director at the Institute for Policy Studies, and co-editor of the Inequality.org website. Anderson is the author of the annual Executive Excess report, the latest of which was published today, August 27. It documents the rising gap between Executive compensation and the median pay for workers at major companies such as Walmart and Amazon, and the consequences of this stampede toward oligarchical levels of inequality.In this wide-ranging conversation, we discuss how these levels of inequality were generated, including the use of stock buybacks to feather executives' nests, and the policy solutions that can be implemented to tackle egregious, and unfair, levels of pay disparity. Sarah Anderson directs the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies and is a co-editor of the IPS website Inequality.org. She is a well-known expert on the gaps between CEO and worker pay, as the lead author of more than 20 annual “Executive Excess” reports that have received extensive media coverage. Anderson has testified on executive compensation before the Senate Budget Committee in 2012, 2021, and 2024.Follow Sarahon online:Bluesky: @sarahanderson.bsky.socialSite: inequality.orgFacebook: @inequalityorgInstagram: @ips_dcFollow SEIU CaliforniaInstagram: @seiucaFacebook: Facebook.com/SEIUCaliforniaYoutube: Youtube.com/SEIUCalifornia©2026 Unrig America Podcast is a production of SEIU California. For more information, please visit UnrigAmerica.com or email Sasha at [email protected]©2026 Unrig America Podcast is a production of SEIU California.For more information, please visit UnrigAmerica.com or email Sasha at [email protected]