*By Christian Smith*
Congressman Ro Khanna wants to inspire companies to do better by their workers.
"It's absurd that you have multi-billion dollar companies, trillion-dollar companies that aren't able to pay their workers $15," Rep. Khanna said Friday in an interview on Cheddar.
That's why the prominent House progressive, who represents California's Silicon Valley, is teaming up with ex-presidential candidate and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to introduce legislation that would place a tax on large corporations ー money that is equivalent to the amount of federal benefits their low-income employees receive to make a livable wage.
Rep. Khanna's House bill is called the "Corporate Responsibility and Taxpayer Protection Act" and targets large companies across industries, including tech, retail, and fast food, he said.
Sanders was a little more pointed with his version, dubbed the "Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act." That's Stop BEZOS, if you didn't notice.
Rep. Khanna said that Amazon has responded to the Sanders bill, saying the company creates safe working spaces for employees and offers competitive benefits. But the Congressman said the point of benefits is a separate matter.
"They're still not addressing the fundamental point," Khanna said.
"Why can't they just come out and say they're going to pay every employee in our company at least a $15 wage so they can have a livable wage?"
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/congressman-ro-khanna-wants-major-corporations-to-improve-worker-pay-or-pay-more-in-taxes).
J&J Shelf Life, Pulse Nightclub Memorial, Consumer Prices Rise. Here is all the news you need to know for Friday, June 11, 2021.
President Joe Biden is calling on global leaders to join him in sharing coronavirus vaccines with struggling nations around the world.
Inmates at an Oklahoma prison began receiving special computer tablets this week.
American consumers absorbed another surge in prices in May — a 0.6% increase over the past month and 5% over the past year, the biggest 12-month inflation spike since 2008.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell for the sixth straight week as the U.S. economy reopens rapidly after being held back for months by the coronavirus pandemic.
Now that El Salvador is taking bitcoin nationwide, other Central and South American countries are coming forward with their own proposals in what's shaping up to be a regional race to become the next bitcoin hub.
The White House dropped Trump-era executive orders that attempted to ban the popular apps TikTok and WeChat and will conduct its own review.
Criminal gangs that used a secure-messaging app called ANOM unwittingly allowed the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to eavesdrop on their conversations.
Reporters traveling to the United Kingdom ahead of President Joe Biden’s first overseas trip were delayed seven hours after their chartered plane was overrun by cicadas.
A Senate investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection has found a broad intelligence breakdown across multiple agencies, along with widespread law enforcement and military failures.
