Jul 21, 2022
MassBudget Report Finds Most Surgeons, Dentists, Lawyers, and Programmers Wouldn’t Come Close to Paying More
BOSTON – In response to a new report from the Massachusetts Budget & Policy Center which found that people working in the highest-earning professions in the state still earn much less than a million dollars a year, the Fair Share for Massachusetts campaign today highlighted how Question 1 on the November ballot would require only the richest people in Massachusetts to pay more.
“Question 1 would require those who earn more than $1 million in a single year to pay a little more, and constitutionally dedicate billions of dollars in new revenue to improving our schools, colleges, roads, bridges, and transit,” said Fair Share for Massachusetts Campaign Manager Jeron Mariani. “This new data shows that even some of the highest-paid workers in the state, like surgeons, dentists, lawyers, and programmers, wouldn’t come close to paying more under Question 1. When we vote Yes on Question 1 in November, super-rich investors will pay their fair share in state taxes, while 99 percent of taxpayers – people who work for a living – won’t pay anything more.”
The Massachusetts Budget & Policy Center report analyzed the most current federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data for Massachusetts, which tracks the average income received by workers in over 750 different occupational categories. They found that no occupation in Massachusetts has an average income anywhere near $1 million, with the highest paid occupations (radiologists, anesthesiologists, cardiologists and surgeons), all having average annual incomes between $300,000 and $350,000. The report also points out that Question 1 would affect fewer than 7 in every thousand households in Massachusetts: about 24,000 out of the more than 3.5 million households that file taxes in Massachusetts each year.
Thousands of educators, workers, small business owners, parents, faith leaders, municipal officials, drivers and transit riders, and more than 215 organizations across the state are working together to pass Question 1 on the ballot through the Fair Share for Massachusetts campaign. After years of grassroots advocacy, the state Legislature voted in June 2021 to place the Fair Share Amendment on the November 2022 statewide ballot, where it is now set to be decided on by the voters as Question 1.
Background on Question 1: the Fair Share Amendment
The Fair Share Amendment – Question 1 on the November ballot – will allow Massachusetts to improve our transportation and public education systems by making the very rich pay their fair share. Question 1 would create a 4 percent tax on the portion of a person’s annual income above $1 million and require – in the state constitution – that the funds be spent only on transportation and public education. Only people who earn more than $1 million annually will be impacted; 99% of us won’t pay a penny more. And we’ll all benefit from better schools, roads, bridges, and public transportation. Learn more and get involved at FairShareMA.com
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The Fair Share for Massachusetts campaign is led by Raise Up Massachusetts, a coalition of community organizations, faith-based groups, and labor unions committed to building an economy that invests in families, gives everyone the opportunity to succeed, and creates broadly shared prosperity. Since our coalition came together in 2013, we have nearly doubled wages for hundreds of thousands of working people by winning two increases in the state’s minimum wage, won best-in-the-nation earned sick time and paid family and medical leave benefits for workers and their families, and started to build an economy that works for all of us, not just those at the top.