Social Overview In addition to problems of climate, there is greater awareness that social inequality has increased over the last several decades. There has been greater recognition that all individuals regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, and political affiliation should be granted a fair opportunity to survive and thrive in this world. These inequalities threaten to undermine social sustainability. Social sustainability occurs when our societies processes, systems, structures, and relationships work to support the capacity of current and future generations to create healthy and resilient communities. Wage and wealth inequality in the United States has increased substantially just in the last 30 years. The overall level of inequality is currently approaching levels that prevailed prior to the Great Depression. In the United States, CEO pay is now 300 times that of the average worker, compared to the 1960s, when the rate was only 27 times. Workers’ wages have stagnated while the pay of higher income earners has skyrocketed. The minimum wage in the United States is worth 17% less in 2020 than it was just 10 years ago, and the top 10% of households now control 87.2% of all the wealth compared to 68.2% in 1983. The gender pay gap still exists and is not getting better. Women, on average, make 80 cents for each $1.00 earned by a male counterpart, a rate that held steady in 2020. Women in almost every industry are paid less than their male counterparts, the disparity is even larger for minority women. Based on the rate of historical progress, it will take over 140 years for the pay disparity between men and women to disappear. In the United States the poverty rate for children has risen to 21%, a rate higher than any other rich nation. There are 8.1 million children under 18 without health insurance unable to obtain even the basic levels of health care needed for a healthy life. Collectively, in the United States there are 44 million uninsured Americans and another 38 million that have inadequate coverage with one in five people in this country having little or no access to even basic healthcare services.
Homelessness has risen dramatically in the last decade. There are 750,000 homeless Americans on any given night, with one in five considered chronically homeless. The largest share of homeless include males, blacks, the middle-aged, veterans, and the disabled. This rate will continue to climb as housing becomes less affordable. Homelessness disproportionately impacts marginalized population; Hispanics and African Americans are twice as likely to experience housing insecurity. The incarceration rate in the United States has grown so dramatically since the 1970s that the US now has the highest incarceration rate in the world, 655 per 100,000 of population. The rise has been greatest among high school dropouts and young black males. Currently 37% of all black males that are high school dropouts are incarcerated in a US prison. Not only does this high rate of incarceration create a burden on community resources, it also impacts the workforce needed by corporations to staff their operations. Corporations that work to support our social systems not only improve the quality of life of our citizens but help build capacity for future growth by increasing the number of well trained and healthy individuals that are able to enter the workforce. Corporate, Social and Environmental Responsibility Some may ask why our corporations should be socially and environmentally conscious. Of course, the first comment might be because it is the right thing to do. But there are many individuals who don’t subscribe to that type of thinking; for them more profit and shareholder value is the only motive for running a corporation. But what if research shows that CSR programs in the long run tend to be the most profitable? A study published in the Accounting Review in 2016 by Harvard Business school researchers discovered that investments in sustainability do add shareholder value to organizations. Using both calendar-time portfolio stock return regressions and firm-level panel regressions they discovered that firms with good ratings on material sustainability issues significantly outperformed firms with poor ratings.
Central Wisconsin Report - Fall 2021
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