Pay the People!: Why Fair Pay is Good for Business and Great for America
Dec 2024 · The New Press
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Shortlisted, 2025 Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice
From an unlikely source, a compelling argument that when workers are paid fairly everyone, including businesses, benefits
“A compelling case for why it’s time for America to invest in our greatest asset—our people.” —Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo
Seventy percent of the U.S. economy relies on consumer demand, yet nearly 40 percent of Americans earn less than the cost of living. Despite massive growth, nearly all economic gains made in the last several decades have gone to the top 1 percent and Wall Street, while working families whose spending habits drive the economy have fallen further behind, and our economy has suffered as a result.
In Pay the People!, John Driscoll, former Walgreens executive and healthcare CEO, and Morris Pearl, former BlackRock executive and board chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, pin the blame squarely on short-term corporate greed and policies of both government and employers that impose austerity on some of the hardest-working employees and families. They argue that business leaders’ refusal to pay wages that workers can live on and Congress’s failure to raise the federal minimum wage trap millions of workers in cycles of poverty. At the same time, Driscoll and Pearl demonstrate, these policies undermine the economy for all of us and threaten the foundation of democratic capitalism.
This thought-provoking book rebukes current wage practices and congressional paralysis and outlines a clear path to stable, inclusive growth. In an issue that is too often covered as a zero-sum game where there’s a winner and a loser, Driscoll and Pearl offer resounding evidence to the contrary.
From an unlikely source, a compelling argument that when workers are paid fairly everyone, including businesses, benefits
“A compelling case for why it’s time for America to invest in our greatest asset—our people.” —Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo
Seventy percent of the U.S. economy relies on consumer demand, yet nearly 40 percent of Americans earn less than the cost of living. Despite massive growth, nearly all economic gains made in the last several decades have gone to the top 1 percent and Wall Street, while working families whose spending habits drive the economy have fallen further behind, and our economy has suffered as a result.
In Pay the People!, John Driscoll, former Walgreens executive and healthcare CEO, and Morris Pearl, former BlackRock executive and board chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, pin the blame squarely on short-term corporate greed and policies of both government and employers that impose austerity on some of the hardest-working employees and families. They argue that business leaders’ refusal to pay wages that workers can live on and Congress’s failure to raise the federal minimum wage trap millions of workers in cycles of poverty. At the same time, Driscoll and Pearl demonstrate, these policies undermine the economy for all of us and threaten the foundation of democratic capitalism.
This thought-provoking book rebukes current wage practices and congressional paralysis and outlines a clear path to stable, inclusive growth. In an issue that is too often covered as a zero-sum game where there’s a winner and a loser, Driscoll and Pearl offer resounding evidence to the contrary.
Shortlisted, 2025 Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice
From an unlikely source, a compelling argument that when workers are paid fairly everyone, including businesses, benefits
“A compelling case for why it’s time for America to invest in our greatest asset—our people.”...
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Doron Youseflaleh
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November 5, 2025
TAX THE FOOD BUSINESS HARD
About the author
John Driscoll chairs Magnit Global, an international staffing company that manages over 700,000 employees. He is also chair of the Waystar Corporation. Previously, he was CEO at CareCentrix, president of Castlight, group president at Medco, SVP at Oxford Health Plans, and senior advisor at Walgreens Boots Alliance. John also served as a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve and is a longtime board member of the Alliance for Hunger and The Patriotic Millionaires. The co-author, with Morris Pearl, of Pay the People! (The New Press), he lives in Stamford, Connecticut.
Morris Pearl, a former managing director of BlackRock, is board-chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of high-net-worth Americans committed to making America better off by building a more prosperous, stable, and inclusive nation, and ensuring that millionaires, billionaires, and corporations pay their fair share of taxes and that every company pays a living wage to all of their workers. He is the co-author, with Erica Payne, of Tax the Rich! and co-author, with John Driscoll, of Pay the People! (both from The New Press) and lives in New York City.
The Patriotic Millionaires is a group of high-net-worth Americans committed to making America better off by building a more prosperous, stable, and inclusive nation, and ensuring that millionaires, billionaires, and corporations pay their fair share of taxes and that every company pays a living wage to all of their workers. It is the co-author (with Morris Pearl and Erica Payne) of Tax the Rich! and (with John Driscoll and Morris Pearl) of Pay the People! (both from The New Press).
Morris Pearl, a former managing director of BlackRock, is board-chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of high-net-worth Americans committed to making America better off by building a more prosperous, stable, and inclusive nation, and ensuring that millionaires, billionaires, and corporations pay their fair share of taxes and that every company pays a living wage to all of their workers. He is the co-author, with Erica Payne, of Tax the Rich! and co-author, with John Driscoll, of Pay the People! (both from The New Press) and lives in New York City.
The Patriotic Millionaires is a group of high-net-worth Americans committed to making America better off by building a more prosperous, stable, and inclusive nation, and ensuring that millionaires, billionaires, and corporations pay their fair share of taxes and that every company pays a living wage to all of their workers. It is the co-author (with Morris Pearl and Erica Payne) of Tax the Rich! and (with John Driscoll and Morris Pearl) of Pay the People! (both from The New Press).
John Driscoll chairs Magnit Global, an international staffing company that manages over 700,000 employees. He is also chair of the Waystar Corporation. Previously, he was CEO at CareCentrix, president of Castlight, group president at Medco, SVP at Oxford Health Plans, and senior advisor at Walgre...
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