Wartime tax law shifted compensation toward untaxed benefits and broadened plan coverage

Evidence

At the same time, Congress enacted the Stabilization Act of 1942, which created wage controls limiting raises, but excluded benefits such as health insurance and pensions from those controls. The Revenue Act forced employers to find new ways to compete for the best workers (who in their minds were white), and tax-free benefits were a way to attract them. Two key provisions of the Revenue Act led more employers to provide more benefits: One required pension plans to cover at least 70 percent of employees in order for the employer to receive tax breaks; and a second stated that the calculation of benefits could not be skewed in favor of high-income workers. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 357

Categorization

• DEFINE: Names the two Revenue Act provisions that pushed benefit coverage down the income scale — coverage requirement and no high-income skew — which are among the concrete race-neutral provisions the reader needs.