Tesla just awarded Elon Musk a $29 billion stock pay package — if his $56 billion pay package is struck down by the courts. Meanwhile, the median pay for Tesla workers is $45,811. This is unchecked corporate greed, any way you slice it. Musk’s pay award is unfathomable, especially considering he has been an absentee CEO who spent most of this year tanking Tesla’s image and stock price through his actions at DOGE.
Musk and corporate executives like him are looting the economy in broad daylight. Boards lavish executives and themselves with outrageous pay packages. CEOs walk away with billions while workers face union-busting, unsafe working conditions, layoffs, wage suppression, and declining job security. This is corruption and greed built into the structure of American corporate power, allowed to run amok.
There are legislative solutions already written and ready to move. The Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act, the CEO Pay Act, and the CEO Accountability and Responsibility Act would increase taxes on companies with extreme pay gaps. These bills are designed to break the cycle and restore basic fairness.
Congress must act now to rein in reckless corporate behavior that harms us all. Every delay helps another billionaire cash in. Every excuse is a message to workers that their labor is disposable. There is no more room for compromise. Lawmakers need to act, and they need to act now.
Demand action to rein in CEO pay. Tell Congress to pass strong legislation so corporations pay workers fairly and treat them with dignity, while putting the brakes on lavish pay packages that encourage bad corporate behavior.