Taking on income inequality with a CEO pay tax [View all]

It remains to be seen whether President-elect Donald Trump will make rising income inequality a priority when he takes office in January. At least, his tax plan indirectly aims to ease inequality by making wealthy Americans “pay their fair share.”

In Portland, Oregon, lawmakers aren’t holding their collective breath. In a move that made international headlines, Portland’s City Council voted earlier in December to approve a first-of-its-kind tax on public companies that pay their chief executive officers more 100 times their median workers’ pay.

According to Portland Commissioner Steve Novick, the tax aims to address growing income inequality by targeting “the phenomenon of outrageous CEO pay.” Some economists, said Novick, argue that escalating CEO pay is more than just a symbol of income disparity in the U.S. but has actually contributed to the nagging problem. Novick sponsored the ordinance authorizing the new tax.

“If we can do something to roll back the explosion in CEO pay, then we can do something about the explosion of economic inequality in general,” he said.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/portland-oregon-ceo-tax-takes-on-income-inequality/