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The Debate Over San Francisco’s “Overpaid CEO Tax”

Friday, May 22, 2026
5 min read
The Debate Over San Francisco’s “Overpaid CEO Tax”

Sergey Brin just dropped half a million dollars. It went to a campaign fighting against the proposed expansion of San Francisco’s really controversial “overpaid CEO tax.” This money arrived right before the city voters head to the polls on June 2nd.

The group running the opposition is trying to protect small businesses and the city’s economic recovery. They’re calling themselves “Yes on C, No on D.”

This funding is coming from big names, too. Think major business organizations like the Chamber of Commerce and Advance SF backing them up. It feels like a big push.

The real fight is between two ballot measures, C and D. It’s all about how the city handles this tax, and what it means for everyone.

Measure C, the business side is pushing this one. It wants to speed things up. They want to bump up the planned increase on the existing “overpaid executive gross receipts tax.” Instead of waiting until 2028, they want to move that hike up to 2027. Plus, they want to expand tax breaks for smaller companies.

That means the exemption threshold for smaller businesses would jump. It moves from $5 million to $7.5 million in annual receipts. Supporters argue this is necessary right now. They claim it gives smaller companies some breathing room while the economy is still shaky.

Meanwhile, there’s Measure D. This one gets backing from labor unions and the progressive crowd. They want to keep the current tax setup. But they want to drastically change the focus. Measure D aims to seriously expand the tax on CEO pay ratios. It’s all about accountability. They want to make sure big corporations face more scrutiny over those huge pay gaps between executives and the average worker. They also want more public money generated from this.

It’s a real tug-of-war happening right now.

What is this whole “overpaid CEO tax” thing, anyway?

It started back in 2020. It was officially called the “Overpaid Executive Gross Receipts Tax.” It slapped extra taxes on companies where the top executives were making way more money than the average employee.

The whole idea was to tackle income inequality. The tax looks at the CEO-to-worker pay ratio. If executives are earning hundreds of times more than the median staff, the tax kicks in. It was introduced to push for fairer compensation structures within these massive corporations.

It’s a complicated mess. And voters have to decide where to land.

Written by Gree News Team — Senior Editorial Board

Gree News Team covers international news and global affairs at Gree News. Our collective of senior editors is dedicated to providing independent, accurate, and responsible journalism for a global audience.

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