Pass the 'Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act'

I’m writing to urge you to support and advance the Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act, legislation that would finally hold corporations accountable for the extreme and accelerating pay gaps between executives and the workers who actually keep those companies running. The situation today is indefensible. In many of America’s largest corporations, CEOs earn 300 to 600 times what their median workers make. Meanwhile, frontline employees are pushed into poverty wages, unpredictable schedules, and jobs that barely cover basic living expenses. These disparities aren’t the product of “market forces” — they’re the result of corporate policies designed to extract value from workers and funnel it upward. The Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act creates a simple, fair mechanism: if a company chooses to maintain an extreme CEO-to-worker pay ratio, it will pay a higher corporate tax rate. If it raises workers’ wages or reins in excessive executive compensation, it pays nothing extra. This is a market-based incentive to reduce inequality without imposing wage mandates. It rewards companies that treat workers fairly and asks more from those that don’t. The surtax is modest — only 0.5% to 5%, depending on the pay ratio — yet over 10 years it could raise an estimated $150 billion. That’s revenue that could strengthen Medicare, fund public education, support workforce development, or reduce the deficit. This is responsible budgeting and responsible capitalism. Most importantly, this legislation addresses something Americans across the political spectrum agree on: the economy is rigged for the wealthy. When CEOs receive windfall stock awards after mass layoffs, when corporations spend billions on stock buybacks while workers rely on food assistance, something is deeply wrong. Congress can’t keep ignoring this. I’m asking you to cosponsor, support, and publicly champion the Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act. Working families need a government willing to stand up for them and challenge a system that has become wildly imbalanced. Please help bring this bill forward for hearings and action. It’s time for Congress to take a stand against the extreme corporate greed that has hollowed out our middle class.