PRIVATE EQUITY LABOR SCORECARD

The Private Equity Labor Scorecard evaluates eleven major US private equity firms, finding that all received a grade of 'C' or lower, with seven failing. The report identifies a pattern of hazardous labor practices, including significant OSHA and wage violations, mass layoffs, and a lack of union presence in many portfolios. It argues that these practices create financial and reputational risks for investors, particularly pension funds, and calls for the adoption of portfolio-wide labor standards.

• All eleven analyzed private equity firms received a grade of 'C' or lower, with seven firms—Blackstone, Cerberus, KKR, Sycamore, Roark, CD&R, and BC Partners—earning failing grades.
• Private equity-owned companies have a massive footprint in the US workforce, employing over 12 million people, with significant concentrations in low-wage sectors such as accommodation and food service (2.4 million), administrative/healthcare (over 2 million), and retail/wholesale trade (1.6 million).
• The eleven firms studied paid a combined $1.6 million in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fines and $4.3 million in fines for wage and hour violations at their portfolio companies.
• Blackstone Inc. performed the worst in reported wage and hour violations, paying $26.15 per employee, and led in total reported OSHA violation fines at $2,702.54 per 1,000 employees.
• Cerberus Capital Management had the highest rate of mass layoffs among the firms, with 13.04 layoffs per 1,000 employees, and the highest number of serious OSHA violations (0.29 per 1,000 employees), primarily at Albertsons.
• Private equity ownership is associated with higher bankruptcy risks; the report notes that private equity-owned companies are twice as likely to go bankrupt as public companies, often leaving employees without severance.
• The presence of unions appears to correlate with better labor outcomes, as evidenced by Warburg Pincus receiving the highest score in the analysis, which the authors attribute to its portfolio company Allied Universal being heavily unionized.

APA

Private Equity Stakeholder Project (2023). PRIVATE EQUITY LABOR SCORECARD. https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/PESP_Report_Labor-Scorecard_2023.pdf

Chicago

Private Equity Stakeholder Project. PRIVATE EQUITY LABOR SCORECARD. 2023. https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/PESP_Report_Labor-Scorecard_2023.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Private Equity Stakeholder Project |title=PRIVATE EQUITY LABOR SCORECARD |date=November 2023 |url=https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/PESP_Report_Labor-Scorecard_2023.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{privateequitystakeholderproject2023private, author = {{Private Equity Stakeholder Project}}, title = {{PRIVATE EQUITY LABOR SCORECARD}}, institution = {Private Equity Stakeholder Project}, year = {2023}, month = nov, url = {https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/PESP_Report_Labor-Scorecard_2023.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }