Swiss Showing the World How to Take on Pay Inequality

[unhappycamper]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/10/05



Swiss activists submitted more than 100,000 signatures needed to get a vote on a guaranteed income Friday, October 4, 2013. In a symbolic gesture, they dumped a truckload of 8 million five-cent coins outside the parliament building in Berne, one for every Swiss citizen.

Swiss Showing the World How to Take on Pay Inequality
- Common Dreams staff
Published on Saturday, October 5, 2013 by Common Dreams

~snip~

But growing public activism over pay inequality since the 2008 financial crisis has already led to two referendum drives on CEO pay.

[In March 2013, Swiss voters overwhelmingly passed one of the world's strictest controls on executive pay, forcing public companies to give shareholders a binding vote on compensation. Voters ignored the business lobby's claim that such curbs would undermine the country’s investor-friendly image.

Next month, November 24, a separate proposal to limit monthly executive pay to no more than what the company's lowest-paid staff earn in a year, the so-called 1:12 initiative, faces a popular vote.

Now, on Friday, Swiss activists submitted over 130,000 signatures to the Swiss Parliament likely forcing another referendum - this one to create a new law guaranteeing all Swiss nationals a basic income of CHF 2,500 a month ($2,756 US).

[Democracyinkind]

1. Proudest vote I'll ever cast.

It's been a hell of a campaign, and even though we'll lose, we sure as hell have them frightened.

These things are still possible here because the founders of this country knew that politics is too important to be left to politicians. Hurray for direct democracy, nice to use that power for non-evil deeds for once.