Sen. Sanders unveils “The Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act”
Yahoo Finance’s Jessica Smith, Julie Hyman, and Myles Udland discuss what to expect from the Senate’s hearing on income inequality.
Video Transcript
MYLES UDLAND: Now that Congress has gotten a $1.9 trillion stimulus plan out the door, we see lawmakers returning to some of their pet issues. Senator Bernie Sanders today will hold a hearing on income inequality as well as push to reintroduce his bill on CEO pay. Yahoo Finance's Jessica Smith joins us now with what to expect on that hearing, Jess, where we do expect an Amazon employee to testify, but it will not be CEO Jeff Bezos.
JESSICA SMITH: Right. The hearing is going to focus on income inequality more generally, though Amazon is sure to come up quite a bit, as there is a worker testifying there. The fight to unionize at Amazon is really going to be at the center of this hearing, I think, when-- that fight in Alabama. Lawmakers including Sanders have really bashed Amazon for its reported efforts to squash those organizing efforts. Voting is ongoing there, and they'll start counting at the end of the month.
Sanders has supported Amazon-- or, excuse me, has supported the workers, not Amazon-- has supported the workers. Even he sent them pizza last month. Senator Marco Rubio has also been a surprising ally of these workers, though his stance was more anti-Amazon than pro-labor unions. Amazon, for its part, has been focusing its messaging on the fact that it pays its workers $15 an hour. Bezos did decline to testify for this hearing.
Just yesterday, the company released a study saying that it showed the benefits of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. It has been pushing to raise the federal minimum wage. So that's what Amazon is saying ahead of this hearing. But again, it's not just going to be focused on Amazon. It's also going to dive into the inequality and wealth gap that has grown throughout the pandemic.
Sanders has pointed to a report that found billionaires saw their wealth grow by $1.3 trillion since the start of the pandemic while millions of people are out of work. And just this morning, he reintroduced his bill that would tax companies at a higher rate if their CEO makes more than 50 times the median worker pay. The higher the CEO-to-worker pay ratio, the higher their rate would get. So expect that to be in focus as well throughout the hearing today. And again, Myles, it starts in just about 10 minutes.
JULIE HYMAN: And Jess, just to follow up on the excessive pay bill that you just mentioned that was previously introduced, I believe, back in 2019. Does that have any chance? I mean, on the one hand, one would imagine that would not get a lot of bipartisan support, for example. On the other hand, at some point-- there's starting to be talk that you're going to have to pay for the aid package, you're going to have to pay for infrastructure.
JESSICA SMITH: I think Republicans are going to be reluctant at the very least to raise taxes on businesses, especially right now. When this was introduced in 2019, it did not have a lot of Republican support. I don't think it could reach, at this point, that 60-vote threshold. So maybe if they work it into a reconciliation bill again, maybe that could work. But I don't think, if they need to reach the 60 threshold, I don't think that would be feasible at this point. But we'll see.
MYLES UDLAND: Winds are changing. But, you know, maybe let's pull back on some of those other crazier things that might come down the pike. Yahoo Finance's Jessica Smith with all the latest happening down in Washington, DC. Is this infrastructure week technically? Or are they all infrastructure weeks now?
JESSICA SMITH: It's always infrastructure week, Myles.
MYLES UDLAND: There we go. All right, in the middle of this infrastructure week. All right, Jess, Thanks for that.
