Billionaire Mark Cuban Says If CEOs Get 10% of Pay in Stock, Janitors Deserve the Same Percentage — ‘That Will Change the Game’

What if the biggest raise an employee ever received didn’t show up in a paycheck?

That’s the question billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban wants corporate America to consider. Instead of focusing solely on higher wages, Cuban argues the real path to narrowing the wealth gap is giving employees a stake in the companies they help build.

Speaking on the “What It Takes” podcast hosted by Sarah McCammon and released last week, Cuban said ownership—not salary—is the key to helping workers build lasting wealth.

“The way you’re going to reduce income inequality for anybody who works with somebody is making sure they get shares of stock and then they benefit,” Cuban said.

It’s not a new philosophy for the former “Shark Tank” investor. Cuban said he’s followed that playbook throughout his career.

“I would like to see it so that every single CEO/founder/entrepreneur does what I did, which was to give equity to every single employee,” he said.

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Why Ownership Beats a Bigger Paycheck

Cuban isn’t calling for mandatory wealth redistribution. Instead, he wants companies to have a financial incentive to share ownership more broadly.

When McCammon pointed out that Cuban’s own equity-sharing was voluntary, he suggested using the tax code to encourage more businesses to follow suit.

“You can give them incentives to say, ‘Look, if you want that 21% tax rate, then you need to give every single employee the same percentage in stock warrants, options, whatever it may be, of their cash compensation that you give to the CEO,’” Cuban said.

In other words, companies could keep today’s lower corporate tax rate only if executives and rank-and-file employees received equity on the same proportional basis.

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The Janitor Test

Cuban illustrated the idea with a simple example.

“So if the CEO gets $100,000 worth of stock because they make $1 million in cash, and the janitor makes $50,000, then they deserve, you know, the same percentage in stock, and that will change the game,” he said.

Miss that threshold, Cuban added, and “your taxes go back up.”

The proposal isn’t about giving every employee the same dollar amount. It’s about giving everyone the same opportunity to benefit when a company’s value grows.

Building Wealth Alongside the Business

Cuban’s argument reflects a broader investing principle: ownership can become a powerful wealth-building tool over time.

For employees, equity offers something a paycheck alone cannot—the opportunity to participate in a company’s long-term success. If the business grows, is acquired, or eventually goes public, those shares can become significantly more valuable than their original grant.

The same idea applies to investors looking beyond publicly traded stocks. Some choose to back private companies they believe have the potential to become tomorrow’s market leaders, investing based on the business itself rather than short-term price swings.

Whether it’s employees receiving stock through their employer or investors buying into an early-stage company, Cuban’s message is the same: real wealth isn’t always created by earning more—it’s often built by owning a piece of what grows.