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July 21, 2026
Social Security Pays Out July 22 but Delays and a Hidden Rule Are Costing Some Recipients Money
- SpaceX’s IPO minted 4,400+ millionaires, including former welder Juan Hernandez, who went from $28/hour in 2015 to $880K in shares- the same wealth-building philosophy Mark Cuban used at Broadcast.com, where 300 employees became millionaires when Yahoo paid $5.7B in 1999
- Cuban wants a tax law requiring companies to give every employee the same stock percentage as the CEO to keep the 21% corporate tax rate — if the CEO gets 10% of salary in stock, the janitor making $50K gets the same 10%
- A Harvard Business School study found that if all private US firms became 30% employee-owned, household wealth would effectively double while the top 1% would see a 14% decrease in net wealth
In 2015, Juan Hernandez accepted a welding job at SpaceX for $28 an hour. Alongside his paycheck came something unfamiliar which is the company stock. He didn’t think much of it at the time. Nearly a decade later, that decision became life-changing. The SpaceX IPO millionaires story isn’t just about a blockbuster listing or Elon Musk’s fortune. It’s also starting a debate over whether employee stock options should be a standard part of compensation. For Mark Cuban, lasting wealth doesn’t come from salaries alone. He argues that employees should own part of the companies they help build through employee stock options.
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How Cuban’s 300 Broadcast.com Millionaires and SpaceX’s 4,400 Make the Case for Mandatory Equity
When SpaceX debuted on the public market, it did more than deliver another headline-grabbing valuation. The offering reportedly created more than 4,400 employee millionaires, extending the rewards well beyond the executive suite.
Hernandez, who joined the company in 2015, accumulated shares through SpaceX’s equity program while rising from welder to supervisor. According to reports, his holdings were valued at roughly $880,000 at the IPO price. It crossed the $1 million mark shortly after trading began before fluctuating with the stock.
That outcome echoes a playbook Cuban has long defended. Before selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo in 1999, Cuban distributed equity broadly across the company. When Yahoo acquired the business for $5.7 billion, around 300 employees reportedly became millionaires overnight. For Cuban, those stories demonstrate why ownership can build wealth in ways salaries rarely do.
He recently argued on the What It Takes podcast that companies should receive tax incentives for sharing equity more broadly. Mark Cuban’s proposal would tie the current 21% corporate tax rate to how businesses distribute stock options. Under Mark Cuban’s wealth model, every employee would receive stock equal to the same percentage of their cash compensation as the CEO. A chief executive earning $1 million who receives stock worth 10% of salary would mean a worker earning $50,000 also receives stock worth 10% of their pay. He added,
“I would like to see it so that every single CEO, founder, entrepreneur does what I did, which was to give equity to every single employee. The way you’re going to reduce income inequality for anybody who works with somebody is making sure they get shares of stock and then they benefit.”
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Why Mark Cuban’s Wealth Strategy Centers on Employee Ownership
Cuban’s proposal arrives as concerns over income inequality and stock continue to grow. The AFL-CIO’s latest Executive Paywatch report found S&P 500 CEOs earned 285 times the median worker’s compensation in 2024.
Research suggests broader ownership could help close part of that gap. A 2021 Harvard Business School study estimated that if all private US companies became 30% employee-owned, household wealth would effectively double. Meanwhile, the wealth of the richest 1% would fall by about 14%. Earlier research from Rutgers University also found companies with employee ownership stakes of at least 5% had higher survival rates than firms without them.
Employee equity is hardly a guaranteed path to riches. Share prices fluctuate, lock-up periods can delay payouts, and concentrated stock holdings carry real risk. Even so, the examples of Broadcast.com and SpaceX have pushed the conversation beyond executive compensation. Cuban’s argument isn’t that every company will create thousands of millionaires. It’s that every employee deserves the opportunity to benefit when the business they help build succeeds.
