"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?" Cuban said. It is the right question to be asking. Because while the debate over wealth inequality continues, the solution has been hiding in plain sight for decades. The top 10% of U.S. households now control 67% of all wealth, while the bottom half holds just 2.5%.
10b5-1 trading plans were once offered mainly to the C-Suite and Board, designed to provide them with a structured and compliant framework for trading their company stock under the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Rule 10b5-1. Now, many companies are adopting a broader view of risk management that includes democratizing access to 10b5-1 trading plans. This is anchored in the reality that senior executives are not the only employee segment with access to sensitive information and equity compensation: Other roles often require working with MNPI.
It's because of the talent war that was started by Mark Zuckerberg. I used to work at Meta, and I speak with my former colleagues often about this. When I heard about their compensation packages, I was shocked - it's really in the tens of millions range. But it shows that in this age, AI researchers who make the best models and stand at the frontier of technology are really worth this amount of money.