On Wednesday, members of the Fair Games Coalition, UNITE HERE Local 11, and other unions gathered outside the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles to push for a new law taxing wealthy L.A. CEOs.
It’s called the Overpaid CEO Tax Intiative and if passed, it would force companies with highly compensated CEOs to then balance that out in what they pay their employees.
“It's about many, many, many corporations that operate in the city of L.A. that pay way too much to their CEOs and not nearly enough to the average worker,” Kathy Finn with the labor union UFCW told KNX News’ Craig Fiegener. “It's about a lot of corporations in the city of LA that are making this city unlivable for working people.”
Kurt Petersen with Unite Here told the crowd that if the proposed law makes it onto the November ballot and is passed by voters, it would increase the city's business tax as much as 10 times on businesses that pay their CEOs extraordinary amounts of money without raising pay for their rank and file employees.
“ If a large corporation chooses to pay its CEO more than 50 times what its median worker earns, it pays more tax,” he said. “The bigger the gap, the higher the tax. This law will raise $500 million every year.”
Signature gathering for the proposed law must be completed and approved by the L.A. County Registrar before it can appear on the November ballot in Los Angeles.
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