Cory Booker Intros Buyback Bill to Increase Workers’ Wages

Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) on Tuesday unveiled legislation that stakes his claim on where the Democratic Party should take the fight over the economy. The Worker Dividend Act targets the increasing trend of corporations using profits for stock buybacks instead of using them to raise wages for workers. Booker’s bill would mandate that companies buying their own shares must also pay out to their own employees a sum equal to the lesser of either the total value of the buyback or 50% of all profits beyond $250 million. Over $200 billion in stock buybacks have been announced so far in 2018 -- a record for this point in the year. “It’s a commonsense move to address a variety of ills,” including underinvestment and low pay, Booker said. It’s also a way to “begin to shine a light on how different the economic system has become over the decades. There are policy decisions we have made that led to stagnant wages.” However, it has little chance of passing in a GOP-controlled Congress. More here.