Cuban backs $20 minimum wage and wider employee ownership

Mark Cuban is calling for a much higher federal wage floor and broader wealth-sharing with employees, arguing that companies should do more for workers living paycheck to paycheck. The billionaire entrepreneur said in an X post last month that lifting the federal minimum wage to $20 an hour would be “smart,” according to Fortune.

The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, Fortune reported. At 40 hours a week, that comes to $15,080 a year, far below the roughly $60,000 average annual salary cited by Fortune.

Fortune reported that no U.S. state has set a standard minimum wage at $20 an hour. The outlet also said some workers in the U.S. earn as little as $5.15 an hour in certain states, while more than 40 million Americans rely on food stamps.

Cuban framed the wage issue as a matter of responsibility for employers and investors. In the X post cited by Fortune, he said he once learned that workers at a company he had invested in, though did not operate, needed government help, and he pushed for raises.

“It was embarrassing to me that we didn’t pay enough,” Cuban wrote, according to Fortune. He also said he has “made, or helped make, at least a thousand millionaires” and intends to keep increasing that number.

A record of payouts after company sales

Fortune reported that Cuban has often tied employee rewards to his own exits. In a 2024 X post, Cuban said he paid large bonuses to workers who had spent more than a year at companies he sold.

At MicroSolutions, the computer consulting business Cuban founded in 1983 and sold to CompuServe in 1990 for $6 million, Fortune said Cuban distributed 20% of the profit to employees. At Broadcast.com, which Cuban co-founded in 1995 and sold to Yahoo in 1999 for $5.7 billion, he said about 300 of 330 employees became millionaires, according to Fortune.

Cuban also said he paid 20% of profits to workers at HDNet, Fortune reported. The outlet also cited reporting from The Athletic that Cuban, a minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, paid more than $35 million in bonuses to the NBA team’s employees in 2024.

Stock gains and worker pay

Cuban’s comments came in a broader discussion of billionaire wealth, founder risk and anger toward the rich, Fortune reported. He argued that founders take financial risks to build companies that create jobs, while also saying more wealth should reach workers who live paycheck to paycheck.

Cuban said on X that he believes in “trickle up,” Fortune reported, describing that as getting valuable assets and higher wages into workers’ hands. He has also argued that companies should give employees shares at the same percentage of cash earnings as the CEO, according to Fortune.

Fortune cited an Oxfam report that said billionaire wealth rose by $33 trillion over the past decade. Cuban responded on X that the stock market had driven much of that increase, while Fortune said an Oxfam study found CEOs at some of the world’s largest companies received an 11% pay increase last year and average workers received 0.5%.

Fortune reported that some companies have used stock awards to create wealth for employees. The outlet said Klarna’s market value rose to $17 billion after its trading debut, helping more than 40 current and former employees become millionaires through stock benefits.

This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.