As founders and C-suite executives grow wealthier from soaring stock gains, billionaire Mark Cuban says employees deserve a piece of that pie too.
Responding to a recent Oxfam report about billionaire wealth increasing by $33 trillion since 2015, Cuban posted on X that the reason behind the surge is that “the stock market has gone straight up.”
“You know who is funding the increase, particularly lately? Retail investors. 401ks,” Cuban wrote. “The better question is, why are we not giving incentives to companies to require them to give shares in their companies to all employees, at the same percentage of cash earnings as the CEO?”
While many companies already offer stock ownership or profit-sharing, many cap what employees can get.
For example, the tech company Intel has an enrollment period twice a year, where employees buy stock up to 15% of their salary at a 15% discount—or a maximum of $21,250 a year. Meanwhile, tech giant Adobe offers employees to contribute up to 25% of their salaries (with a maximum of $21,250 per year) at a 15% discount.
Cuban says wealth isn’t the problem—it’s how companies use it
With an estimated net worth of $6 billion, Shark Tank star Mark Cuban has built his fortune by betting on ownership. He began his career founding broadcast.com before selling it to Yahoo in a $5.7 billion deal in 1999. Nowadays, he owns a minority stake in the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and is co-founder of his 2022 venture Cost Plus Drugs.
Given his success, the investor says wealth gains for leaders are okay, just as long as it’s benefiting everyone properly: “Compassion and capitalism—not greed—are what can make this country far greater.”
“Multiple studies show that when everyone owns stocks, the results are better. Which matches my experiences with multiple companies,” Cuban told Fortune.
The billionaire added that the more “liquid net worth” a CEO has, the more opportunity they have to benefit others and change their life for good.
“The value of those dollars become much greater, to you, and so many others, when you use your business, or other expertise to help others.”
Cuban has previously shared profits through bonuses
Cuban has long argued that companies should give employees stock options and he’s backed up that philosophy in his own ventures. For example, he has often shared profits through cash bonuses rather than equity grants.
“In every business I’ve sold, I’ve paid out bonuses to every employee who’d been there for more than a year, ” he said in a previous X post.
In the post, he wrote that while at Broadcast.com, 300 out of 330 employees became millionaires. Meanwhile, at MicroSolutions (the first company he founded) he paid out 20% to 80 employees. The Mavericks he said wasn’t a full exit, but he paid out more than $35 million to staff.
In a 2020 episode of the “This is Working” podcast he said that businesses will “get more from your employees, and they will be more committed if you share equity immediately in a meaningful way, so that everybody rises.”
Are you changing stock options for your employees this year? Fortune wants to hear from you Contact jessica.coacci@fortune.com
