Taking on income inequality with a CEO pay tax

[TexasTowelie]

It remains to be seen whether President-elect Donald Trump will make rising income inequality a priority when he takes office in January. At least, his tax plan indirectly aims to ease inequality by making wealthy Americans “pay their fair share.”

In Portland, Oregon, lawmakers aren’t holding their collective breath. In a move that made international headlines, Portland’s City Council voted earlier in December to approve a first-of-its-kind tax on public companies that pay their chief executive officers more 100 times their median workers’ pay.

According to Portland Commissioner Steve Novick, the tax aims to address growing income inequality by targeting “the phenomenon of outrageous CEO pay.” Some economists, said Novick, argue that escalating CEO pay is more than just a symbol of income disparity in the U.S. but has actually contributed to the nagging problem. Novick sponsored the ordinance authorizing the new tax.

“If we can do something to roll back the explosion in CEO pay, then we can do something about the explosion of economic inequality in general,” he said.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/portland-oregon-ceo-tax-takes-on-income-inequality/

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Define CEO pay. Does it include stock options, capital gains, and pension tricks?

[TexasTowelie]

2. I'm not a tax accountant, but I believe all of those fit under deferred compensation. nt

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Me neither, but in many cases it is the bulk of CEO compensation...

And there's performance bonuses, where additional taxation could be counter-productive.

At any rate, it's a cool sound bite for a complicated situation that no politician ever feels obligated to explain or put into effect

[Johnathan146]

4. So if a CEO makes too much, a business ends up paying .2% additional tax

My predition is that they just raise prices .2%, and instead of the corporation making less the citizens of portland just end up paying more for goods.