May 28, 2025                                                         Home   Subscribe  Open in Browser

How much does freedom cost? For former nursing home executive — and massive tax-fraud enjoyer — Paul Walzack, freedom has cost $1 million.

Walzack, found guilty in April of stealing $10 million from the paychecks of the nurses and doctors who worked for him, was supposed to spend 18 months in prison, with two more years of supervised release, and have to pay $4.4 million in restitution. Then his mother attended a dinner. But not just any dinner: a $1 million-per-person fundraising dinner at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago. 

A few weeks later, Walzack found himself pardoned. Coincidence? You tell us.

We’re now living in a nation where fealty — and financial contributions — to the billionaire sitting in the White House can enable any deep pocket to skirt the law, evade any significant penalty, and proceed to enjoy plutocratic life to the fullest.

Chris Mills Rodrigo
for the Institute for Policy Studies’ Inequality.org team

Building a Better, More Equal Economy in Cincinnati

This week’s frontline faces: Members of Co-op Cincy’s growing network of worker- and community-owned businesses.

What they're doing to help create a more equal world: This Cincinnati-based organization has helped get several businesses off the ground in the last decade-plus, creating over 150 excellent jobs.

Our Harvest, for example, grows healthy food across two urban farms and connects other local farmers with customers, helping the community eat well and creating good jobs along the way.

Another supported business, Sustainergy, is helping remodel homes to improve efficiency at costs that working people can afford.

What makes this fight so important: “Ultimately, we want to see a real shift in wealth inequality, the elimination of poverty,” explains Kristen Barker, Co-op Cincy co-founder. “That’s what we’re going for.”

Some Real Hope for Ridding the Gig Economy of Precarity

The ever-growing economy of gig work — think outfits like Amazon Flex, DoorDash, Instacart, Lyft, Shipt, and Uber — rests on the back of worker exploitation. These enterprises treat drivers as if they were operating as totally independent contractors, a maneuver that lets them rob workers of basic protections that range from minimum wages to paid sick leave.

A recent Human Rights Watch survey has found that gig workers in Texas are making on average just $5.12 an hour, after expenses and including tips. Gig companies? They're making out like bandits.

But gig workers aren’t taking this exploitation sitting down. The upcoming International Labour Conference will be debating a binding treaty on decent work in the platform economy. Human Rights Watch's Lena Simet has details below.

A federal appeals court has just given President Trump a green light to deny union rights to about two-thirds of federal workers. What makes this such a huge deal? Workers with collective bargaining agreements tend to have a stronger voice in decision making — and larger paychecks. Typical unionized workers make about $200 more per week than their non-unionized counterparts. For an interactive version of this chart and more on income inequality, click the link to our Inequality.org Facts section below.

At Verizon, No Room for Diversity Whenever Avarice Beckons

This week’s dour deep pocket: Hans Vestberg, the telecom giant Verizon CEO.

What has Vestberg sour: anything that connects Verizon to policies that smack of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” In a May 15 letter to the Federal Communications Commission, Verizon announced that — “effective immediately” — the company would be “ending its DEI-related policies.”

The rationale? The Supreme Court and the president of the United States, Verizon has declared, now “require” this move. But, as a Popular Information analysis notes, no Supreme Court ruling bans Verizon from including “diversity” and “inclusion” in its public outreach or employee training.

So why did CEO Vestberg suddenly kill off all DEI at Verizon? One obvious reason: He needed FCC approval of Verizon’s acquisition of the Fronter Communications broadband powerhouse. The day after Vestberg’s Verizon officially disavowed DEI, the FCC approved the acquisition.

The last word: This past March, the Verizon board of directors raised Vestberg’s annual incentive pay to $25 million. Verizon’s CEO compensation, Simply Wall Street observed last year, continues to be “out of sync with company performance.”

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