To: The Massachusetts State Senate
No Mass. CEO should make more than 100 times their employees
Massachusetts Fair Share
I urge you to back "An Act Relative to Excessive Executive Compensation” (S. 1509), which would impose a 2% Massachusetts state tax on the profits of companies whose executives make more than 100 times what their average worker is paid.
No CEO should pay themselves more than 100 times what their average employee gets. It's time our growing economy helped build the middle class, too.
No CEO should pay themselves more than 100 times what their average employee gets. It's time our growing economy helped build the middle class, too.
Why is this important?
The economy has recovered from the recession and continues to grow. But as so many of us know, that growth isn’t reaching the middle class. It’s being gobbled up by Wall Street and company executives. Luckily, Massachusetts can do something about it.
Despite record profits, corporations are giving less and less to help the middle class. A recent report showed that regular employees see the smallest percentage of corporate profit at any point since 1950 -- even while productivity has kept rising. [1]
In Massachusetts, the average employee gets $51,082 per year, while the average CEO receives $4.5 million. Looking at just the S&P 500 companies, that jumps to $13M for an average CEO, 255 times the average worker. [2] If a company is doing well, there is no reason their executives shouldn't earn more, but when that doesn't reach the rest of the employees, it bogs down the whole economy with unsustainable inequality.
There is a pending bill in the Massachusetts Senate that would push corporations to curb this trend. It's a simple idea: If a company pays their executives more than 100 times what the median salary is for that company, they would pay another 2% in taxes on their profits. This gives companies an incentive to raise the salaries of average employees.
Massachusetts does best when everyone gets a fair shot and gets a fair share. Everyone should get a chance to work their way to a living wage.
1. Josh Bivens, Economic Policy Institute, "In 2013, Workers’ Share of Income in the Corporate Sector Fell to its Lowest Point since 1950."
http://www.epi.org/publication/2013-workers-share-income-corporate-sector/
2. CEO Pay by State, AFL-CIO. http://www.aflcio.org/Corporate-Watch/Paywatch-2014/CEO-Pay-by-State
Despite record profits, corporations are giving less and less to help the middle class. A recent report showed that regular employees see the smallest percentage of corporate profit at any point since 1950 -- even while productivity has kept rising. [1]
In Massachusetts, the average employee gets $51,082 per year, while the average CEO receives $4.5 million. Looking at just the S&P 500 companies, that jumps to $13M for an average CEO, 255 times the average worker. [2] If a company is doing well, there is no reason their executives shouldn't earn more, but when that doesn't reach the rest of the employees, it bogs down the whole economy with unsustainable inequality.
There is a pending bill in the Massachusetts Senate that would push corporations to curb this trend. It's a simple idea: If a company pays their executives more than 100 times what the median salary is for that company, they would pay another 2% in taxes on their profits. This gives companies an incentive to raise the salaries of average employees.
Massachusetts does best when everyone gets a fair shot and gets a fair share. Everyone should get a chance to work their way to a living wage.
1. Josh Bivens, Economic Policy Institute, "In 2013, Workers’ Share of Income in the Corporate Sector Fell to its Lowest Point since 1950."
http://www.epi.org/publication/2013-workers-share-income-corporate-sector/
2. CEO Pay by State, AFL-CIO. http://www.aflcio.org/Corporate-Watch/Paywatch-2014/CEO-Pay-by-State