• Ashelyn@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    3 months ago

    Imagine a world where combined C-suite salaries were capped at the tax burden a company owes past a certain point. I think that would be incredibly funny to see the conflict of interest at play. Want your accounting/legal department to research tax loopholes to exploit? Sure thing, but it’s coming straight out of your paycheck!

    Oh, you “had a bad year”? Probably shouldn’t be taking home a hundred million dollars then.

    Combined with a “top pay can’t make more than x times the salary of the lowest paid employee” with the exception being the tax thing, I could see it being a great double bind into making companies either pay their workers more or actually pay their share in taxes.

    I know it would basically never happen in the US but a girl can dream

    • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      That is a fantastic idea and could be its own sitcom. My guess is that they would figure out how to “pay” them in different ways through corporations that don’t exist, island accounts, etc.

      • Ashelyn@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        3 months ago

        I’m picturing a CEO in a board meeting suddenly turning heel on the fiscal policy and spinning it as “y’know it really is our duty as a fortune 500 American company to be paying our taxes because it pays dividends back into this country…” met by the credulous looks from everyone else in the room and mix of eager to pensive nods from other Executives.

        The C-suite trying to pull fast ones by Accounting hoping they won’t notice but getting their plots subtly foiled by the existence of so many tax loopholes.

        The only thing across the runtime that definitely 100% for sure won’t happen is the blanket lowest-pay raises, but it frequently gets brought up as a joke that’s only funny for the first few episodes and quickly becomes a tired cliche; the last resort suggestion that has to be tried and shot down every. single. time even though it becomes increasingly clear that it would be a net positive for everyone. In that sense, the humor is still there, but it’s in the cynical acknowledgement of the situation rather than the lowest paid employee actually being the butt of the joke.

        • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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          3 months ago

          There are people on here that say that most of their salaries are only from stock, so it’s not that big of deal. For example, Spez’s salary. I’ve been duped again, it’s better for it to be stock, lol.

  • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    Gotta be careful how you position any reforms; if I start my own company with a few employees, I sure don’t want to be paying the government more than I’m taking home.

    On the other hand, once the CEO’s salary is greater than the combined total of the 15 lowest paid employees, you’ve got a problem.

  • Binthinkin@kbin.social
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    3 months ago

    Good to know, now lets change it by electing Biden in and hammering the fuck out of them to change our society for the better by eliminating EXTREME WEALTH AND CASUAL CRUELTY!

    It’s time.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      Um, I don’t think Biden is in favor of any of that. He’s certainly closer than Trump, but that’s like saying cyan is closer to white than red is.

      Maybe he’s the right option in this “lesser of two evils” election, but to get real change, we need to break the two party system.

  • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    The progressive nonprofit Americans for Tax Fairness and the nonprofit wealth gap watchdog Institute for Policy Studies examined executive pay from 2018 to 2022 at the country’s most successful corporate tax dodgers. They found that at 64 major companies, compensation outstripped their corporate tax bills at least two years out of five.