John,

Corporations claim that when they and their top executives and investors thrive, regular workers thrive, too. But over the last three years, low-wage companies have spent billions of dollars on stock buybacks to enrich CEOs and shareholders while workers are still just scraping by.

Stock buybacks mostly enrich top corporate executives and other wealthy shareholders. That’s because about 90% of all corporate stock is owned by the richest 10% of Americans; over half is owned by the top 1%.[1]

Last year, Lowe’s spent more than $14 billion on stock buybacks—enough to give every one of its 301,000 U.S. employees a $46,923 bonus. But, instead they’re using their obscene profits to inflate their stock prices and enrich wealthy shareholders.

In response to this reckless use of corporate profits, last year Democrats passed and President Biden signed into law a 1% tax on corporate stock buybacks. In the first half of 2023, the new stock buybacks tax raised $3.5 billion from some of the biggest corporations in America. But with corporate greed still out of control, President Biden is calling for an increase in the stock buybacks tax from 1% to 4%―and the Stock Buyback Accountability Act of 2023 does just that.

Click here to add your name and become a grassroots co-sponsor of the Stock Buyback Accountability Act and demand Congress increase the corporate stock buyback tax from 1% to 4% to hold greedy corporations accountable.

Between 2020 and 2022, 100 of the largest corporations paying rock-bottom wages spent $341 billion on stock buybacks.

Take a look at these stats:[2]

• Lowe's ($30k median worker pay): $34.9 billion in stock buybacks

• Home Depot ($30k median pay): $28.9 billion in stock buybacks

• Walmart ($27k median pay): $23.9 billion in stock buybacks

• Target ($25k median pay): $8.9 billion in stock buybacks

During that same time, CEOs of the top 100 low-wage companies saw their personal stock holdings increase more than three times as fast as their workers’ pay. And, to make matters worse, last year the CEO-to-worker-pay ratio at these corporations was an astounding 603 to 1.

Let’s hold these greedy corporations accountable. Add your name and become a grassroots co-sponsor of the Stock Buyback Accountability Act and demand Congress increase the stock buybacks tax from 1% to 4% today.

Corporations have a choice. They can invest in their workers instead of their wealthy investors, or they can pay higher taxes. A 1% tax didn’t seem to focus their attention adequately on this choice―a 4% tax might do the trick.

A strengthened stock buyback tax is one more way that together, we’re fighting for a tax system and an economy that works for working people, not just CEOs and wealthy shareholders.

David Kass
Executive Director
Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund

[1] “Distribution of Household Wealth in the U.S. since 1989,” The Federal Reserve
[2] “Executive Excess 2023,” Institute of Policy Studies, August, 2023