Mark Cuban backs broader employee stock ownership to narrow pay inequality

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Cuban backs employee stock ownership

Highlights

Cuban proposes tax code changes to incentivize companies to broadly distribute equity to all employees and penalize those that do not.
Oxfam and International Trade Union Confederation report CEOs at the world's largest companies saw 11% pay rises in 2025 versus 0.5% for average workers.
In the U.S., S&P 500 CEO pay increased 25.6% from 2024 to 2025, while private-sector worker earnings rose only 1.3% in real terms.

Cuban outlines equity-sharing tax proposal

As reported by Business Insider, Cuban says on an episode of Unmoderated News' "What It Takes" podcast released Thursday that every employee, from the CEO to the janitor, should receive company stock. He says the government could use the tax code to reward companies that distribute equity broadly, while raising taxes on those that do not.

Cuban says founders and entrepreneurs should follow the model he used by giving equity to every employee. He also says companies should match stock awards as a share of cash compensation, meaning workers would receive the same proportion as top executives even if the dollar amounts differ.

He illustrates the proposal with an example in which a CEO earning $1 million in cash and receiving $100,000 in stock would set the benchmark percentage for the rest of the workforce. Under that structure, a janitor earning $50,000 would also receive stock equal to the same share of pay, which Cuban says would materially change wealth-building prospects for workers.

Pay-gap pressure shapes the wider debate

The argument comes as executive compensation continues to outpace worker pay. Oxfam and the International Trade Union Confederation found that CEOs at the world's largest companies received an 11% real-terms pay rise in 2025, while average worker pay rose 0.5%.

In the U.S., S&P 500 CEO pay climbed 25.6% from 2024 to 2025, compared with a 1.3% real-terms increase in average hourly earnings for private-sector workers. Cuban has made similar arguments for years and has said he paid bonuses after company sales, including when Yahoo bought Broadcast.com in 1999, helping about 300 employees become millionaires.

His comments echo views voiced earlier in July by Elon Musk, who says he has long believed employees should share in the gains of the businesses they help build. The issue is also surfacing elsewhere in the sector, with Blue Origin introducing a more generous equity scheme, although employees lose their stock options if they join a competitor within 18 months of leaving.

In our earlier report on Anglian Water’s executive pay package, we detailed how the utility’s chief executive received a £1.86 million total award, with a large share paid via the parent company structure that the firm said sits outside Ofwat’s bonus limits. We also noted the regulator’s review as the company faces missed performance targets and rising customer bills, and highlighted broader concerns across the UK water sector about outsized CEO rewards.

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