Congressman DeSaulnier Introduces Bill to Crack Down on Corporate Greed and Raise Workers’ Wages

Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Mark DeSaulnier (CA-10) introduced the CEO Accountability and Responsibility Act (H.R. 5019), a bill that would limit corporate greed, invest in working Americans, and reduce income inequality. 

“As working Americans struggle with higher costs of living and diminished power in the workplace, ultrawealthy CEOs and large corporations are profiting hand over fist at their employees’ expense and rewarding themselves with exorbitant salaries and bonuses,” said Congressman DeSaulnier. “While Republicans bend over backwards to help their CEO friends get richer and support tariffs that make everything more expensive, I’m countering their misguided efforts to put the power back where it really belongs—with workers—to put an end to excessive corporate greed that is eroding the middle class and threatening our democracy.”

While in the 1970s, the average CEO earned roughly 20 to 30 times the compensation of a typical worker, that disparity has exploded with estimates placing the ratio at over 300:1 for top S&P 500 companies. The CEO Accountability and Responsibility Act would increase corporate taxes on companies that have extreme disparities between CEO and worker pay. It would also offer preferential treatment in federal contracts to companies with pay ratios below 50:1. With the passage of Dodd-Frank, we now have data on the pay ratios for publicly traded companies. The CEOs of Starbucks and Abercrombie & Fitch make over 6,000 times what the company’s median worker makes. If the CEO Accountability and Responsibility Act were to become law, these companies would be forced to pay millions in additional taxes. 

Congressman DeSaulnier first introduced a version of this bill during his time in the California State Senate. A similar policy has since been adopted by Portland, Oregon, where it generated $3.5 million in the first year, and a tax on CEOs that are paid at more than 100:1 ratio was passed into law in San Francisco in 2020.

This bill is supported by: AFL-CIO, American Sustainable Business Network, Americans for Financial Reform, Center for Popular Democracy, Consumer Action, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers, Institute for Policy Studies, Global Economy Project, National Federation of Federal Employees, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, Patriotic Millionaires, Public Citizen, Social Security Works, and United for a Fair Economy (UFE).