Brown unveils legislation to curb stock buybacks
Published 9:32 am Friday, August 2, 2019
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, unveiled new legislation to curb stock buybacks and create a ‘worker dividend’ to ensure workers get what he said was their fair share of profits they help create.
“Wall Street is obsessed with shareholder equity, but workers have equity in a company, too,” Brown said. “It’s called sweat equity, and it’s time workers are rewarded for it.”
Brown said that “Corporate greed is fundamental to the Wall Street business model.”
“We know that,” he said. “Workers aren’t going to get their fair share until we change it — we know that too. My proposal is simple: if corporations want to transfer wealth to Wall Street, workers have to get a proportionate share of the pie.”
Brown’s office said his Stock Buyback Reform and Worker Dividend Act would curb stock buybacks and would create a ‘worker dividend’ to ensure workers get their share of the profits they help create.
The dividend will be equal to $1 for every $1 million spent on stock buybacks, dividend increases, and special dividends.
Brown unveiled a calculator on his website, where he said workers can type in the dollar figure for their employers’ stock buybacks and dividends and find out what their worker dividend would be under the bill.