NJ Sends The Right Message

New Jersey is a much-maligned state, sometimes with good reason, especially in the area of political corruption.

But sometimes The Garden State gets it right and does something ahead of everyone else in America, something so correct you can’t believe it needs to be spelled out in writing.

Case in point is New Jersey’s new law that bans job ads, in print or online, that only consider the employed for openings.

The job ad legislation, signed into law by Gov. Chris Christie, is necessary because some employers are discriminating against the unemployed. You must be “currently employed” to apply for positions.

Some employers and recruiters are operating under the misguided assumption there is something wrong with you if you’re out of work.

So, following this bonehead logic, you are not worth the time and effort.

Wake-Up Call

Under New Jersey’s law, which takes effect June 1, no business can post a listing for a job opening in the state that contains:

*Any provision stating that the qualifications for a job include current employment;

* Any provision stating that the employer or employer’s agent, representative, or designee will not consider or review an application for employment submitted by any job applicant currently unemployed; or

*Any provision stating that the employer or employer’s agent, representative, or designee will only consider or review applications for employment submitted by job applicants who are currently employed.

Violators will be fined $1,000 for the first offense and $5,000 for a second offense. Christie rejected as too severe original provisions calling for fines of $5,000 and $10,000, respectively.

Zero-Tolerance Needed

Frankly, WMB believes the penalties should be higher, with strict enforcement. Repeat offenders, after the second offense, should have their names published as a public service and a warning to others who would flout the law.

There is no excuse for practicing discrimination against any group of individuals. People should be judged on legitimate qualifications, knowledge and skills, period.

True, there are laws prohibiting racial, sexual, age, ethnic and religious discrimination, and various forms of bias in between.

But some employers used the Great Recession as cover for creating two classes of workers – those currently employed but seeking new jobs and those unemployed but deemed not worthy of consideration.

Talk about flawed and skewed thinking!

Debunking The Myth

Some of those who lost their jobs since 2008, through no fault of their own, were well-qualified and veteran workers across a variety of industries – construction workers, teachers, police officers, financial advisers, journalists, just to name a few.

Many of these workers had skills, knowledge, strong work ethic and, yes, higher salaries than what entry-level positions provide.

With few exceptions, nobody willingly would want to become long-term unemployed. Unemployment benefits, even generous ones, do run out. Food needs to be on the table; bills have to be paid.

And, doubters aside, many Americans still have a solid work ethic that has been handed down through generations of immigrants. That ethic is part of the thread that makes us diverse and strong as a nation.

Employers since the recession years have held all the hiring cards, especially when the numbers reflected five to seven workers for each job opening, regardless of industry.

Businesses, large and small, should carefully screen all job candidates to find the best qualified, not toss out the unemployed based on arbitrary rules and bias.

New Jersey is on the right path; others should follow its lead.

Ken Cocuzzo

If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing for FREE (link in right sidebar) and sharing it on Facebook, Twitter, or your favorite social network. Thank you!

Meet The U.S. Tax Evaders

Some of the largest companies in the world don’t pay taxes! Not only is the United States incurring record debt exceeding $14 trillion, the government’s ability to collect tax revenue is ineffective.

“Companies are becoming much more sophisticated in the way they arbitrage the U.S. tax system,” says Howard Gleckman, a resident fellow at the Urban Institute, a think tank analyzing economic issues in the United States.

“Companies don’t have to be creative,” according to Robert Willens, a tax professor at Columbia Business School. “All they have to do is attribute or ascribe as much income as possible to foreign subsidiaries.”

Companies register their intangible assets including intellectual property, for example, and income outside America and register their liabilities and expenses in the United States to effectively reduce their taxable domestic income.

Ireland and the Caribbean Islands are common tax havens.

Geography Doesn't Count

“It doesn’t matter where your corporate headquarters is,’’ says Glickman. “If you’re Google, your income is I.P. … the patents aren’t even registered in the U.S.

“For drug companies, the income is earned to their Irish subsidiary. When you say that company is in the U.S., I don’t exactly know what that means.”

Critics say avoidance of corporate income tax damages the economy and diminishes domestic investment and job creation.

Defenders of current practices argue it’s the only way companies can stay competitive on a global scale since the U.S. tax rate of 35 percent is one of the highest in the world. (The average effective corporate tax rate is closer to 25 percent.)

Many believe corporations are just playing by the rules.

Public corporations generally have an obligation to their shareholders and their workers to maximize after-tax profits.

The 10 largest corporate offenders, as reported by The Daily Beast and Newsweek, are:

Exxon Mobil

Exxon Mobil’s profits were over $30 billion in 2010.

In 2009, profits were over $19 billion and yet, according to its Securities and Exchange Commission filing, received a rebate of $156 million from the Internal Revenue Service.

The company did not pay any taxes in 2009.

Google

Google last year reduced its overall tax burden by $3.1 billion with a pretax profit of $10.8 billion. By using transfer pricing, incomes are reported in foreign tax havens and liabilities are reported domestically.

Google’s patents are registered outside America, allowing it to license patents domestically and write off the expense.

General Electric

GE’s 2010 pretax profit was $14.2 billion. GE’s “innovative” accounting methods allowed it to accrue a $3.2 billion tax benefit in 2010, $833 million in 2009 and $651 million in 2008.

The company employs an entire team of former IRS and Treasury officials.

Boeing

Boeing’s 2010 pretax profit was $4.5 billion. Despite a double-digit tax rate, it has managed to escape paying federal taxes for the last three years thanks to foreign subsidiaries.

According to Citizens for Tax Justice, the company paid 0.3% of its pretax income in federal income taxes in 2010.

Pfizer

Pretax 2010 profit was $9.4 billion. Like many pharmaceutical multinationals, the company uses transfer pricing to record sales in one country to profits (on paper) in another country entirely.

Oracle

Oracle’s pretax profit was $8.2 billion and used transfer pricing (but not without implications on the Nikkei).

Phillip Morris

Its pretax profit was $5.7 billion in 2010; between 2001 and 2003 took advantage of $3.3 billion in tax breaks; effectively cutting taxes by a third.

IBM

Had a 2010 pretax profit of $19.7 billion; in 2009, the tech giant shrank its effective tax rates by nearly 10 percent by postponing the taxes it earned abroad.

Goodrich

In 2010, the company posted a profit of $804 million. In the past, the company’s effective tax rate was 11.3 percent, but it is depreciating its assets in an accelerated rate.

Time Warner

Reported a pretax profit of $3.9 billion in 2010; the merger with AOL resulted in lower taxes. Between 2001 and 2003, it cut taxes by 121 percent and paid no taxes for two years.

TechMan

If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing for FREE (link in right sidebar) and sharing it on Facebook, Twitter, or your favorite social network. Thank you!

ChinaWatch: Smoking Into Space

Welcome to ChinaWatch, WMB’s digest of news from the country with the world’s second largest economy and our chief rival to global dominance. Our aim is to keep you informed.



Smoking Stamped Out

A smoking ban is now in effect in most public places in China, a move that health experts say will help raise awareness of the dangers of smoking in a country where tobacco use is deeply ingrained.

There is a lack of public awareness of the health risks of smoking in China.

The World Health Organization says seven out of 10 non-smoking adults in the East Asian nation are exposed to second-hand smoke each week. Smokers light up in elevators and offices, and even in hospital waiting rooms.

With the new ban, the country’s estimated 300 million smokers will no longer be allowed to puff their cigarettes in what the Chinese government is calling “enclosed public places.”

These include hotels, restaurants, theaters and public transport waiting rooms. The ban does not cover offices or factories.

Hong Kong University School of Public Health Director Tai Hing Lam says the ban will be effective in informing the public about the dangers of smoking.

“With this new legislation, this will promote awareness, and that is a major step,” Lam says.

He says non-smoking Chinese, who make up the majority of the population, should understand second-hand smoke is harmful to their health. He hopes the new ban will help encourage them to ask for more smoke free places.

“Non smokers at the moment are too passive, let us put it that way, because they’re so used to being exposed,” he says. “So, they do not realize that they have the right to demand it (smoke free places). Now, the law actually empowers them.”

Stepping Into Space

China may fly a woman astronaut into space next year as it embarks on an ambitious program for the next decade which includes a mission to land a rover on the moon and setting up a space station with a cargo spaceship to transport supplies.

China plans to fly two more spacecraft next year to improve the rendezvous and docking technologies and one of it will be a manned one, says Yang Liwei, deputy director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, hinting it could as well be a woman.

China plans to carry out its first space docking between two unmanned vehicles this year, followed by one manned and one unmanned space missions next year as part of its efforts to set up a space station.

“Two to three astronauts will be sent to space in that manned mission next year,” he was quoted by the state-run China Daily as saying.

Fei Junlong, leader of China's astronaut team, says the two women astronauts and five men astronauts – the second batch of Chinese astronauts, who were selected last year – have to take a three-year training course before carrying out space missions.

But Yang says there are possibilities for the women to join next year's mission.

The two women astronauts, both pilots from the People's Liberation Army Air Force, are the first women astronauts in China. The 14 astronauts in the first batch, who were recruited in 1997, are all men.

ChinaWatch

If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing for FREE (link in right sidebar) to WMB and sharing it on Facebook, Twitter, or your favorite social network. Thank you!