Labor Day 2021: Private Equitys Responsibility to Its Workers

The Private Equity Stakeholder Project and partners call for the private equity industry to implement six labor standards—including a $15 minimum wage, paid sick leave, and protections against layoffs—to mitigate the negative impacts of private equity takeovers on millions of workers.

• The private equity industry manages nearly $7.4 trillion in assets and employs over 11.7 million workers in the United States, as well as millions more globally.
• Private equity ownership is heavily concentrated in low-wage sectors, with at least 1.5 million workers in Food Service, 1.1 million in Retail, and nearly 1 million each in Security and Health Care.
• The document demands that private equity firms adopt six specific standards: a sustainable minimum wage with a $15 floor, provision of paid sick leave and affordable health care, a commitment to end occupational segregation through public recruitment and retention plans for BIPOC, LGTBQ+, women, and workers with disabilities, ensuring safe working conditions, providing severance of at least one week's pay per year of employment during layoffs, and protecting the right to organize.
• Private equity takeovers are associated with significant job losses and reduced average wages, particularly in the retail sector where store closures and bankruptcies have led to hundreds of thousands of layoffs.
• Specific large-scale employment examples include Roark Capital's acquisition of Dunkin' Donuts (nearly 1 million workers), Warburg Pincus-owned Allied Universal Security's acquisition of G4S (over 800,000 workers globally), and Apollo Global Management's workforce growth to over 550,000 employees via acquisitions of Alorica and Michael's craft stores.

APA

Private Equity Stakeholder Project (2021). Labor Day 2021: Private Equitys Responsibility to Its Workers. https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Private-Equity-Labor-Day-demands-PESP-NELP-090621.pdf

Chicago

Private Equity Stakeholder Project. Labor Day 2021: Private Equitys Responsibility to Its Workers. 2021. https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Private-Equity-Labor-Day-demands-PESP-NELP-090621.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Private Equity Stakeholder Project |title=Labor Day 2021: Private Equitys Responsibility to Its Workers |date=2021 |url=https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Private-Equity-Labor-Day-demands-PESP-NELP-090621.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{privateequitystakeholderproject2021labor, author = {{Private Equity Stakeholder Project}}, title = {{Labor Day 2021: Private Equitys Responsibility to Its Workers}}, publisher = {Private Equity Stakeholder Project}, year = {2021}, url = {https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Private-Equity-Labor-Day-demands-PESP-NELP-090621.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }