Keep American Jobs in America

Offshoring is different from ordinary outsourcing

Hiring another American company for machining, IT, accounting, logistics, payroll, or other services is ordinary outsourcing. SNEK’s concern is offshoring: closing or shrinking American operations and transferring substantially equivalent work to another country.

Freedom to move does not mean freedom from consequences

A private company can decide where it operates. But if it eliminates American jobs and recreates the work overseas, it should face a substantial labor-displacement tax.

Make the deterrent real

The assessment should be large enough that a CFO seriously reconsiders whether replacing an American workforce with cheaper foreign labor is still worth it. A token fee that simply becomes another line item accomplishes nothing.

Scale the tax to actual displacement

The formula should consider jobs eliminated, payroll displaced, whether an American facility closed, how long equivalent work remains offshore, local economic impact, domestic transfers offered, retraining, severance, and whether equivalent American jobs are created elsewhere.

Reward real international expansion

Opening a foreign operation to serve a foreign market while maintaining or expanding American employment is not the same as replacing American workers. The policy should target displacement, not ordinary global business.

Use the revenue for American workers

Revenue should support trade schools, apprenticeships, advanced manufacturing, technical retraining, community colleges, career transition, domestic industrial capacity, and communities suffering major job losses.

Reward domestic investment

Companies that build factories, train workers, expand production, and create substantial American employment should benefit from a tax environment that makes domestic investment attractive.

Automation and offshoring are different

SNEK would rather see an American facility become dramatically more productive through automation than see the entire operation exported. Both can displace labor and create transition responsibilities, but automation can preserve domestic industrial capacity.

The SNEK position

Let companies operate internationally. Strongly deter genuine offshoring of American jobs. Scale the tax to the amount of labor displaced. Use the revenue to strengthen American workers and industry. Make America an attractive place to build while making job replacement overseas a costly choice.