Michigan Advance: Tlaib, Sanders introduce CEO pay bill to tax excessive CEO salaries

Michigan U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Monday introduced a bill with fellow progressive U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders to try and rein in what they view as corporate greed by taxing excessive salaries for America’s top executives.

HR 5298, known as the Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act, would raise taxes on corporations that pay their executives 50 times the wages of their workers. A news release circulated by Tlaib’s office said that if Tesla, X and SpaceX head Elon Musk, for example, receives the full $975 billion compensation package that Tesla’s board recently proposed, the company would – under her bill – owe up to $100 billion in additional taxes over the next decade.

“Working people are sick and tired of corporate greed. CEOs are now making 290 times more than their average worker,” Tlaib said in a statement. “It’s disgraceful that corporations continue to rake in record profits by exploiting the labor of their workers. Every worker deserves a living wage and human dignity on the job.”

Sanders, in a statement, said American workers can no longer tolerate a “rigged economy,” one that “enables the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, to become the first trillionaire while 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and millions work longer hours for lower wages.” 

“It is unacceptable that the CEOs of the largest low-wage corporations make more than 630 times what their average workers make,” Sanders said. “This is not only morally obscene, but also insane economic policy. No society can survive when one man becomes a trillionaire while the working class is unable to afford basic necessities.”

The Democrats’ bill would also create penalties that would start at 0.5 percentage points for companies with CEO-to-worker pay ratios between 50-to-1 and 100-to-1, increasing to the highest rate for firms where executives make more than 500 times worker pay. The proposal would raise an estimated $150 billion over 10 years if current pay patterns continue.

It is unclear whether the bill has any momentum, as both chambers of Congress are controlled by Republicans, and with President Donald Trump in the White House.

Musk did not comment on the legislation on his X social media account.

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