A Labor Market Punishing to Mothers

Many of us are already aware that there are more men in powerful corporate positions than women. In fact, out of the Fortune 500 companies, only 15 have women CEO’s. However, according to this article from the New York Times single women without children, are often favored over mothers.

The last three men nominated to the Supreme Court have all been married and, among them, have seven children. The last three women — Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Harriet Miers (who withdrew) — have all been single and without children.

This little pattern makes the court a good symbol of the American job market. Women and men with similar qualifications — age, education, experience — are much more likely to be treated similarly today than in the past. The pay gap between them, while still not zero, has shrunk to just a few percentage points.

Yet once you look beyond the tidy comparisons of supposedly identical men and women, the picture is much less sunny. There are still only 15 Fortune 500 companies with a female chief executive. Men dominate the next rungs of management in most fields, too. Over all, full-time female workers make a whopping 23 percent less on average than full-time male workers.

What’s going on? Men and women are not identical, of course. Many more women take time off from work. Many more women work part time at some point in their careers. Many more women can’t get to work early or stay late.

And our economy exacts a terribly steep price for any time away from work — in both pay and promotions. People often cannot just pick up where they have left off. Entire career paths are closed off. The hit to earnings is permanent.

Kagan Filed Brief on Behalf of IRS in Textron Case

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan has been in the headlines since President Obama announced her nomination. Since she does not have a judicial record, reporters and bloggers are desperate to learn more about her tax and financial views. According to WebCPA, while servicing as Solicitor General Kagan filed a brief on behalf of the IRS.

“When the case was originally considered last winter, the First Circuit held the documents should not be produced because they were protected by the work product doctrine, which is in both case law and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The doctrine provides that documents prepared in anticipation of litigation do not need to be produced to an adversary,” she said. “The policy is that the adversary should not have the opportunity to build a case by ‘taking a peek’ at the other side’s thoughts and strategies.”

The government wants to look at the work papers, naturally, because they document what the company itself considers its questionable tax positions.

In the government’s brief filed in April urging the Supreme Court not to hear the case, Solicitor General (and now Supreme Court nominee) Elena Kagan stated, “By characterizing essentially any interaction between a taxpayer and the IRS as ‘litigation,’ petitioner [Textron Inc.] and its amici [friends of the court] fail to appreciate the dynamics of our self-assessing tax system. In an administrative tax proceeding, the ‘parties are not adversaries, but rather two elements of the tax regulatory regime, with one party reporting its self-assessed tax liability and the other party attempting to verify that self-assessment.’”

Continue reading at WebCPA.com…

Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan

By now you have all probably heard about Elena Kagan, President Obama's nomination to replace Justin Stevens on the Supreme Court. Although her confirmation hearings have not yet began, I decided to make some predictions, based upon her career thus far, about her business and tax views.

No Tax Records

It is very difficult to determine exactly what impact Kagan would have on the U.S. tax code because, if confirmed, she would be the first Supreme Court Justice—in nearly four decades—to serve without any prior experience as a judge.

Respected Member of the Law Community

Kagan has a Bachelor's degree in history from Princeton, a Masters in Philosophy from Oxford and a J.D. from Harvard. She was a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, before being appointed as dean of Harvard Law School. Kagan is a highly respected member of the legal community.

Clerking Experience

Kagan worked as a clerk for Judge Abner Mikva, as well as Justice Thurgood Marshall. Mikva is widely known as a very progressive member of the DC Court of Appeals, which has led many to believe that Kagan will be progressive if confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, because of her limited record on social and fiscal issues this is merely an assumption.

Pro Shareholders as Solicitor General

Although she has never served as a judge, Kagan has been serving as Solicitor General since Obama took the White House. During her time as Solicitor General, she joined lawsuits on the side of shareholders against companies and mutual funds. According to Bloomberg, prior Solicitor Generals did not side with shareholders, leading many in the business community to consider her nomination as a slap in the face to many large corporations.

Social Justice

Although we do not know much about her tax views, according to A Taxing Matter, Kagan wrote her senior thesis at Princeton on the socialist movement in New York City in the early 20th century. Therefore, we can predict that Kagan is at least informed about arguments for social justice in our "capitalist-based economic system."

Furthering Obama's Tax Agenda

Kagan has been considered as a possible Supreme Court Justice since Obama won the election in 2008. As this article published last month on NY Times.com explains, Kagan is known for supporting "assertions of executive power." Therefore, we could expect that she would support Obama's tax agenda if confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which could have significant impacts on the U.S. tax code.