2017: Schweikert Voted For Legislation That Would Have Repealed Significant Portions Of Dodd-Frank, Including Repealing The Pay Ratio Disclosure Rule. In June 2017, Schweikert voted for the Financial Choice Act. According to NPR, "House Republicans voted Thursday to deliver on their promise to repeal Dodd-Frank --- the massive set of Wall Street regulations President Barack Obama signed into law after the 2008 financial crisis. In a near party-line vote, the House approved a bill, dubbed the Financial Choice Act, which scales back or eliminates many of the post-crisis banking rules." The vote was on passage. The House passed the bill by a vote of 233 to 186. The Senate took no substantive action on the legislation. [House Vote 299, 6/8/17; NPR, 6/8/17; Congressional Actions, H.R. 10]
Legislation Repealed A Rule Requiring Companies Release A Comparison Between Its CEO And Its Average Employee. According to the Washington Post, "The bill would also eliminate rules meant to rein in Wall Street pay and force companies to release how much chief executives earn compared with their average employees, a potentially embarrassing disclosure." [Washington Post, 6/9/17]
2015: The SEC Approved A Rule Requiring Most Public Companies To Disclose The Ratio Of Their CEO Pay Compared To Its Employees. According to the New York Times, "After a long delay and plenty of resistance from corporations, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved in a 3-to-2 vote on Wednesday a rule that would require most public companies to regularly reveal the ratio of the chief executive's pay to that of employees. Representatives of corporations were quick to assail the new rule, which will start to take effect in 2017, saying that it was misleading, costly to put into practice and intended to shame companies into paying executives less. But the ratio, cropping up every year in audited financial statements, could stoke and perhaps even inform a debate over income inequality that has intensified in recent years as the wages of top earners have grown far more quickly than anyone else's." [New York Times, 8/5/15]
Economic Policy Institute: CEO-To-Worker Compensation Is Higher Than It Was In The 60's, 70's, 80's Or 90's. According to the Economic Policy Institute, "From 1978 to 2014, inflation-adjusted CEO compensation increased 997 percent, a rise almost double stock market growth and substantially greater than the painfully slow 10.9 percent growth in a typical worker's annual compensation over the same period. The CEO-to-worker compensation ratio, 20-to-1 in 1965, peaked at 376-to-1 in 2000 and was 303-to-1 in 2014, far higher than in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s." [Economic Policy Institute, 6/21/15]
2016: Schweikert Voted Against Allowing The SEC To Finalize The Pay Ratio Disclosure Rule. In July 2016, Schweikert voted for an amendment that would have, according to Congressional Quarterly, "prohibit[ed] the use of funds to finalize, implement, administer or enforce the Securities and Exchange Commission's Pay Ratio Disclosure rules." The underlying legislation was an FY 2017 financial services appropriations bill. The vote was on the amendment. The House adopted the amendment by a vote of 236 to 185. The House later passed the underlying bill, but the Senate took no substantive action on the legislation. [House Vote 385, 7/7/16; Congressional Quarterly, 7/7/16; Congressional Actions, H. Amdt. 1254; Congressional Actions, H.R. 5485]
2015: The SEC Approved A Rule Requiring Most Public Companies To Disclose The Ratio Of Their CEO Pay Compared To Its Employees. According to the New York Times, "After a long delay and plenty of resistance from corporations, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved in a 3-to-2 vote on Wednesday a rule that would require most public companies to regularly reveal the ratio of the chief executive's pay to that of employees. Representatives of corporations were quick to assail the new rule, which will start to take effect in 2017, saying that it was misleading, costly to put into practice and intended to shame companies into paying executives less. But the ratio, cropping up every year in audited financial statements, could stoke and perhaps even inform a debate over income inequality that has intensified in recent years as the wages of top earners have grown far more quickly than anyone else's." [New York Times, 8/5/15]
Economic Policy Institute: CEO-To-Worker Compensation Is Higher Than It Was In The 60's, 70's, 80's Or 90's. According to the Economic Policy Institute, "From 1978 to 2014, inflation-adjusted CEO compensation increased 997 percent, a rise almost double stock market growth and substantially greater than the painfully slow 10.9 percent growth in a typical worker's annual compensation over the same period. The CEO-to-worker compensation ratio, 20-to-1 in 1965, peaked at 376-to-1 in 2000 and was 303-to-1 in 2014, far higher than in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s." [Economic Policy Institute, 6/21/15]