John,

Tesla is laying off thousands of workers while its Board of Directors is asking shareholders to approve a $56 billion pay package for Tesla CEO Elon Musk.[1][2]

But that’s not all! Americans for Tax Fairness research shows that between 2018 and 2022, Tesla paid its top 5 executives $2.5 billion while paying $0 in federal income taxes.[3]

So, even as Tesla pays its top executives exorbitant salaries, it is simultaneously laying off workers and dodging taxes.

Write to Tesla’s Board of Directors now and demand they put workers first, not top executives.

Together, we’re fighting to level the playing field for working people, and that means holding greedy corporations and executives accountable.

Thank you,

Maura Quint
Campaign Director
Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund

[1] Tesla Will Lay Off More Than 10% of Workers
[2] Tesla asks shareholders to restore $56B Elon Musk pay package that was voided by Delaware judge
[3] More for Them, Less for US: Corporations That Pay Their Executives More Than Uncle Sam

-- David's email --

John,

Tesla is the only major American automaker whose workers are not represented by a union. So it was easy for the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, to suddenly inform his employees in an email that he was laying off 14,000 of them.

But if Tesla is laying off rank-and-file workers to cut costs, it’s looking in the wrong place―it should be focused on the executive suite. Americans for Tax Fairness research shows that between 2018 and 2022, Tesla paid its top 5 executives $2.5 billion. And that’s while paying $0 in federal income taxes.[1]

But that $2.5 billion is just the tip of the executive-overpayment iceberg. Tesla’s Board of Directors is asking its shareholders to restore a $56 billion pay package just for Musk, the company’s founder and CEO.[2] (A judge in business-friendly Delaware earlier ruled that jumbo pay package excessive, but the company’s trying again.) Musk of course is the second richest person in the world, behind only Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.[3]

Instead of layoffs, Tesla should be cutting the outrageous pay of its executives, improving worker compensation and paying its fair share of taxes. Under the Trump Tax Scam, corporations saw their tax rates cut from 35% to just 21%, while enjoying a host of loopholes that have allowed corporations like Tesla to get away with paying $0 in federal income taxes in some years.

Click here to send a message to Tesla’s Board of Directors demanding it put workers first, not Elon Musk and other top executives. And that it start consistently paying taxes to the country that’s helped make its success possible.

Today is May Day, a day to celebrate the accomplishments of working people throughout the world. Even as workers in the U.S. continue to organize for better pay and safe working conditions―and with many autoworkers winning historic unionization votes and model contracts―too many employees are still being met with union busting efforts by large profitable corporations that are putting executive pay and shareholder payouts over the needs of working people.

We’re fighting for an economy that levels the playing field for workers, but a report last year from the Institute for Policy Studies shows that the CEO-worker pay gap is 603 to 1 at the 100 lowest paying S&P 500 corporations.[4] And, when averaging all corporations, the Economic Policy Institution reports that during that same time the national CEO-to-worker-pay ratio was 344 to 1.[5]

We’re demanding corporations put workers first, not top executives; and that they pay their fair share of taxes. Click here to write to Tesla’s Board of Directors today.

Together, we’re fighting for an economy that holds greedy corporations and CEOs accountable and that values working families.

David Kass
Executive Director
Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund

[1] More for Them, Less for US: Corporations That Pay Their Executives More Than Uncle Sam
[2] Tesla asks shareholders to restore $56B Elon Musk pay package that was voided by Delaware judge
[3] Jeff Bezos is world's richest person again, edging out former No. 1 Elon Musk
[4] Executive Excess 2023
[5] CEO pay slightly declined in 2022