title:  Major City SLAPS Greedy CEOs Like Trump With Tax Penalty To Fight Income Inequality
text: This is HUGE news!The city council of Portland, Oregon just did something awesome that could actually reduce the income inequality gap.As we all know, CEO pay has gotten out of control over the last few decades. Some CEOs even make more than 100 times what their employees make. And some of those CEOs have the gall to whine that providing benefits, better wages, and healthcare to their employees is a waste of money.Well, if these greedy CEOs want to operate in Portland they ll have to pay an extra tax that could inspire other American cities to do the same thing.According to the Institute for Policy Studies,In a 3-1 vote, the council agreed to add a surtax on the city s existing business license tax for firms that pay their CEOs more than 100 times what their typical worker receives. This will be the nation s first tax penalty for extreme CEO-worker pay gaps.On how the tax will be levied and which companies will be affected, Truthout.org spoke to IPS co-editor Sarah Anderson, who explained that the city has already found over 500 companies that will see a rise in their taxes soon.Publicly traded companies with extreme pay gaps will pay a surtax on top of the city s current business license tax. The surtax will be 10 percent of the business tax liability for companies with a CEO-worker pay ratio of more than 100-to-1 and 25 percent for companies with a ratio of more than 250-to-1. The Portland government has identified more than 500 corporations that do enough business in the city to be affected by the surtax, including many that regularly dominate the highest-paid CEO lists, such as Oracle, Honeywell, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and General Electric.So once again, the fight on behalf of workers is centered in Oregon. Earlier this year, Oregon raised the minimum wage to nearly $15 an hour. Meanwhile, Donald Trump s cabinet is stacked with billionaires and his tax plan favors the top one percent.According to a Tax Policy Center chart posted to Twitter by Morning Joe economic wonk Steven Rattner, Trump s tax plan will give the top 0.1 percent a $1.1 million tax cut while the bottom 20 percent only get a cut of $110.Under Trump s plan, the top 0.1% get an avg tax cut of $1.1mm; the bottom 20% get only $110. My @Morning_Joe chart: pic.twitter.com/oQcZuALtPa  Steven Rattner (@SteveRattner) December 8, 2016And Trump has repeatedly claimed that the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is too high and had named a wealthy CEO and opponent of the fight for a $15 minimum wage as his Labor Secretary.Clearly, Trump intends to widen the income gap and punish workers while giving huge tax giveaways to his wealthy friends.But Portland, Oregon just slapped Trump across the face on behalf of workers everywhere and their strategy could be replicated in other cities across the country.Featured Image: Scott Eisen/Getty Images