Key Takeaways
- • The Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP), a nonprofit watchdog, launched the Private Equity State Risk Index on April 9, 2024, assessing the relative risks private equity buyouts pose to individual states across four areas: workers and jobs, health care, housing, and pensions.
- • The index uses 16 unique indicators and ranks New Mexico, North Carolina, Arizona, Florida, and Nevada as the five states facing the greatest risk, followed by Georgia, Washington, Texas, Colorado, and Tennessee.
- • PESP states private equity now manages more than $13 trillion in assets and controls companies employing over 11 million U.S. workers, with significant holdings of American homes and health care infrastructure.
- • The index tracks 12 state-level policy measures designed to protect workers, taxpayers, patients, renters, and consumers, with a checklist for each state showing which solutions have been enacted.
- • The index is publicly accessible at PrivateEquityRisk.org, and PESP says it aims to engage policymakers, regulators, and stakeholders in every state.
Summary
The Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP), a nonprofit watchdog of the private equity industry, launched the Private Equity State Risk Index on April 9, 2024. The tool is designed to assess how private equity buyouts affect individual states across four areas: workers and jobs, health care, housing, and pensions. According to PESP, the index draws on 16 unique indicators to produce relative risk rankings.
According to the index, the 10 states facing the greatest risk from private equity, in order, are New Mexico, North Carolina, Arizona, Florida, Nevada, Georgia, Washington, Texas, Colorado, and Tennessee. PESP characterizes the industry as growing rapidly, now surpassing $13 trillion in assets, and notes that private equity firms control companies employing more than 11 million workers nationwide and own millions of homes, along with key health care infrastructure.
PESP identifies specific risks in three areas. In private equity-controlled companies, these include reduced staffing, lower wages, benefit cuts, job losses, and economic instability. In health care, the organization cites deteriorating patient care, higher medical costs, and the closure of critical facilities. In housing, it points to increased rents, market disruption, and unsafe living conditions.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) endorsed the index, calling private equity's conduct "legal looting" and describing the tool as a means to hold the industry accountable. UNITE HERE Local 11 Co-President Susan Minato cited the hospitality sector in Southern California and Arizona, noting that 10,000 Local 11 members have been striking hotels for nine months and that 81 percent of hotels that have failed to settle a labor agreement are owned or operated by private equity firms.
The index also incorporates data on 12 state-level policy measures aimed at safeguarding workers, taxpayers, patients, renters, and consumers. Each state profile includes a checklist of policy solutions adopted by that state's policymakers. Chris Noble, policy director at PESP, said the index gives communities and state leaders transparent data to advocate for change. The index is accessible through PrivateEquityRisk.org.
According to the index, the 10 states facing the greatest risk from private equity, in order, are New Mexico, North Carolina, Arizona, Florida, Nevada, Georgia, Washington, Texas, Colorado, and Tennessee. PESP characterizes the industry as growing rapidly, now surpassing $13 trillion in assets, and notes that private equity firms control companies employing more than 11 million workers nationwide and own millions of homes, along with key health care infrastructure.
PESP identifies specific risks in three areas. In private equity-controlled companies, these include reduced staffing, lower wages, benefit cuts, job losses, and economic instability. In health care, the organization cites deteriorating patient care, higher medical costs, and the closure of critical facilities. In housing, it points to increased rents, market disruption, and unsafe living conditions.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) endorsed the index, calling private equity's conduct "legal looting" and describing the tool as a means to hold the industry accountable. UNITE HERE Local 11 Co-President Susan Minato cited the hospitality sector in Southern California and Arizona, noting that 10,000 Local 11 members have been striking hotels for nine months and that 81 percent of hotels that have failed to settle a labor agreement are owned or operated by private equity firms.
The index also incorporates data on 12 state-level policy measures aimed at safeguarding workers, taxpayers, patients, renters, and consumers. Each state profile includes a checklist of policy solutions adopted by that state's policymakers. Chris Noble, policy director at PESP, said the index gives communities and state leaders transparent data to advocate for change. The index is accessible through PrivateEquityRisk.org.
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