Mark Cuban's Plan To Help Workers Build Wealth Like CEOs
The gap between CEO wealth and worker wages has widened dramatically over the past several decades. In 2024, CEOs earned 281 times as much as a typical worker — up from just 21 times as much in 1965, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Since 1978, top CEO pay has surged by 1,094%, compared with only a 26% increase in a typical worker’s compensation.
While some level of disparity may always exist, billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban believes the real issue isn’t just how much workers earn, and suggests a more effective way to narrow the wealth gap.
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Why the CEO-Worker Wealth Gap Keeps Growing
Wealth is largely concentrated among a few individuals, and thanks to the artificial intelligence boom, that trend will only get worse if we maintain the status quo, Cuban noted while appearing on the "Compound Interest from Semafor Business" podcast.
"There is going to be a lot of capital focused on just a few people in the way the system is set up right now," he said. "And that's a problem. You will see trillionaires, beyond just Elon Musk. You're going to see a lot of concentration of wealth [go to] AI investors and the people who created the company that own large amounts of those stocks."
Why Mark Cuban Says a Wealth Tax Won't Solve the Problem
Some politicians and thought leaders have proposed increasing taxes on the extremely wealthy to help narrow the gap between the haves and have-nots, but Cuban doesn't view this as a viable solution.
"Wealth tax doesn't fix s---," he said.
Right now, all the proposals are on a local level, which means wealthy Americans could just relocate to places without an extra tax. But Cuban doesn't believe a federal wealth tax would be effective either.
"Not only do people move, but even if it were federal, people are just going to have to retain cash and not be able to invest in things that lift people up," he said.
In his view, forcing wealthy individuals to hold more cash instead of investing it could limit business growth and reduce opportunities that benefit others. Even well-intended policy, he suggests, fails to address the root cause of inequality.
Mark Cuban's Solution: Give Workers Access to Equity
For Cuban, the biggest issue isn't how much people earn — it’s whether they own any assets that grow in value over time.
"The reason you get the wealth disparity is that people don't have appreciable assets," he said. "If you don't have any assets that appreciate — stocks, homes, whatever it may be — you're going to fall behind if you're just getting a salary or paid by the hour."
Cuban believes the solution is to expand opportunities for employees to become partial owners of the companies they work for.
"We have to do things that force, if necessary, employers to provide shares of stock pari passu to what the CEO is making," he said. "So if the CEO gets 2% of their cash salary in shares or warrants or restricted stock or whatever, somebody making $40,000 as a janitor gets 2% in stock, warrants — the same thing."
The goal isn’t equal payouts, but equal participation in wealth-building opportunities.
"Then everybody's aligned," Cuban said.
Expanding access to equity would give more workers a stake in the companies they help build — and a path to long-term wealth.
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