Mich. Congressman Wants Firms to Divulge Outsourcing

A Michigan congressman plans to introduce legislation to require U.S. companies to divulge how many jobs they have outside the country. Rep. Gary Peters, D-Mich., plans to introduce the Outsourcing Accountability Act to require companies that make over a $1 billion break down where their employees work, The Washington Post reported.

 

“This is fairly easy for a company to do,” Peters told the Post. “They certainly have that information readily available, and I think it’d be surprising for a company to say it doesn’t know where it sends its paychecks.”

 

Such information is closely guarded by such companies as Pfizer, Apple, and IBM, whose public filing disclose employees but not where there are.

 

Data shows that multinational firms sliced 2.9 million jobs in America between 2000 and 2009 while adding 2.4 million overseas, the Post reported.

 

 “There are consumers who want to support companies that support American workers,” Peters told the Post. “This [data] would give them the opportunity to do that.”