The “Overpaid CEO Act” targets San Francisco companies with the biggest pay disparities between workers and the C-suite, and the firms shelling out to tank it are among those with the widest gaps, a new analysis shows.
The analysis published Tuesday by the Institute for Policy Studies, a nonprofit focused on progressive issues, shows that in 2025, at least seven of the companies that are paying out to defeat the measure had pay gaps between their median worker and CEOs above the 100-to-1 ratio threshold the proposed law targets.
Some of the biggest: The CEO of clothing retailer The Gap took home $17.2 million in total compensation in 2025 compared to $10,170 for its median worker — a ratio of 1,690-to-1. The chief executive of Williams Sonoma, the homeware store, followed with a 1,062-to-1 ratio.
Others include Comcast, the media conglomerate, with a ratio of 777-to-1; DoorDash, the delivery app, with a ratio of 432-to-1; and Uber, the ride-hailing app, with a ratio of 360-to-1.
Those companies are some of the 13 that have joined a $4.1 million effort to sink the new tax through a rival measure, Proposition C. Other firms are represented through business coalitions opposing the measure, including the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.
“There’s just something so obscene about the ultra ultra ultra wealthy coming out in force to block something that would be a step towards reducing inequality in one of the most unequal cities,” said Sarah Anderson, program director at the Institute for Policy Studies, who put together the analysis.
If passed, the tax measure, Proposition D, would increase the city’s existing “overpaid executive” tax by 800 percent to a maximum of 1.1 percent of gross receipts. It would apply to some 250 companies whose highest paid executive earns more than 100 times the company’s median worker wage.
San Francisco already has an “overpaid executive” tax, but unlike the current law the proposed measure would set the “median wage” based on all employees, not just San Francisco-based ones.
Anderson’s analysis looks into nine of the companies donating to the campaign against the proposition. Those companies are publicly listed, and their compensation breakdown is detailed in filings submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The median salaries in those disclosures may not be calculated using the same criteria required by the proposed tax.
In 2024, the average CEO-to-worker ratio among companies listed on the S&P 500 was 285-to-1, according to the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, a coalition of labor unions.
The proposed measure looks at annual CEO compensation, but that can obscure the true pay gap. In 2025, for example, Amazon had the lowest executive-to-worker ratio among the companies Anderson analyzed, including stock payouts. But stock payouts at Amazon occur periodically, not annually.
Going back to 2024, the company’s highest paid executive took home $34.3 million, 922 times more than the median worker pay.
Proponents of Prop. D argue that it will generate revenue to fill the gap left by federal funding cuts. Its opponents argue it would disproportionately affect low-margin businesses like grocery stores, and potentially drive businesses out of the city. The measure is backed by several public-sector unions that say their members’ jobs could be affected by any layoffs stemming from a budget deficit.
Billionaire donors are also opposing the measure. Anderson’s report details five billionaires and nine political and business groups that have joined the fight against Prop. D.
- Chris Larsen, co-founder of crypto company Ripple, gave $700,000 opposing Proposition D, including $200,000 for campaign mailers. Larsen, in an interview with Mission Local, previously referred to the measure as “incredibly short-sighted.” It is unclear whether Ripple would be affected by the tax increase, according to Bloomberg.
- Michael Moritz, retired venture capitalist and executive chairman of The San Francisco Standard, gave $625,000 against the measure.
- DoorDash CEO Tony Xu gave $250,000 to fight the tax. Xu became a billionaire when the company went public, but was not the company’s highest-paid executive — his compensation was only 12 times the median worker pay.
- Robert Fisher and William Fisher, who both sit on The Gap’s board of directors and are members of its founding family, each gave $50,000 to oppose the tax.
According to an estimate from City Controller Greg Wagner, the Prop. D tax would generate between $250 million and $300 million in annual revenue.