Clinton Proposes New Profit-Sharing Tax Incentives Targeted at Middle-Income Workers

Inclusion and Diversity

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton announced this week a new plan intended to encourage companies to give profit-sharing options to their employees while also phasing out credits available for profits shared with high-income workers and capping the credit for large companies.  Under the plan, detailed at a campaign stop in Dover, New Hampshire, firms that share profits widely with employees would receive a two-year tax credit equal to 15 percent of the profits distributed to workers, capped at a value of 10 percent of employees' wages.  Small firms would be eligible for a larger credit.  "If you treat somebody like they have a stake in your business," said Clinton, "they’re going to stand up a little straighter, they’re going to work a little harder."  The campaign estimates that the proposal, part of the candidate's economic platform to raise middle-class incomes, would cost the government $20 billion over the next decade, but would be offset by increased economic productivity.  The plan is based on a recommendation in a report by the Center for American Progress and is part of a broader push against the considerable focus on shareholder value.  Reflecting this theme in her speech, Clinton commented, "We need to get businesses back looking after their employees and their customers and their communities and our country, not just their executives and their shareholders."