New Report: AT&T is Top Job-Cutter Among Tax-Dodging Firms

A new report reveals that AT&T is the top job-cutter among the biggest tax-dodging corporations in the U.S.

The report, conducted by the Institute for Policy Studies, analyzes the job creation records of profitable U.S. corporations that have been paying an effective tax rate of less than 20 percent. The Institute reveals that lower corporate tax rates benefit top executives – not workers.

AT&T managed to get away with an effective tax rate of just 8.1 percent over the 2008-2015 period while cutting more jobs than any other firm in the sample. AT&T had nearly 80,000 fewer employees in 2016 than in 2008, and instead of job-preserving investments, the firm shoveled profits into stock buybacks ($34 billion over the past nine years) and CEO pay. AT&T chief Randall Stephenson pulled in $28.4 million in 2016, more than double his 2008 payout.

House Speaker Paul Ryan is proposing to cut the statutory federal corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 percent. President Trump wants to slash the rate even further, to just 15 percent. This report shows that lower corporate tax rates do nothing for U.S. workers and fail to create jobs.

Read the report here.