Bernie Sanders cites $79 trillion transfer

Sen. Bernie Sanders used a September 7 post on X to revive two long-running inequality statistics: a RAND estimate that $79 trillion in income was shifted from the bottom 90% to the top 1% from 1975 through 2023, and an AFL-CIO measure showing chief executives still earn far more than typical workers. Sanders paired the figures with a renewed call for higher taxes on the wealthy, according to the post referenced in his office’s materials. The numbers did not originate in the social post itself. They come from outside analyses that Sanders and allied groups have cited before. RAND’s estimate is a model of lost income under a more equal growth path, while the CEO-pay figure depends on which companies and years are counted. ### Where does the $79 trillion figure come from? RAND published a working paper on February 17, 2025 that extended earlier research on the U.S. income gap through 2023. The paper said workers in the bottom 90% would have earned $3.9 trillion more in 2023 if income had grown more evenly since 1975, and that the cumulative shortfall over that period was $79 trillion. (rand.org) Sanders’ Senate office highlighted the same figure in a March 4, 2025 press release, describing it as wealth “redistributed” from the bottom 90% to the top 1%. The release said the estimate represented the cumulative cost of lost wages to workers below the 90th percentile due to rising inequality from 1975 through 2023. (rand.org) ### Is this an inheritance “wealth transfer” estimate? The $79 trillion figure is not the same as the “great wealth transfer” forecasts that track inheritances from older Americans to heirs. CNBC reported in July 2026 that Cerulli Associates projected $105 trillion would pass to heirs by 2048, while Visa Business and Economic Insights estimated a smaller $36 trillion after accounting for taxes, charity and other factors. (sanders.senate.gov) RAND’s number instead measures an income gap against a counterfactual benchmark — what lower- and middle-income workers would have received if growth had been distributed more evenly. Sanders and his office have framed that gap as an upward redistribution tied to inequality. ### What about the claim that CEOs make 350 times as much as workers? AFL-CIO’s 2026 Executive Paywatch said the average CEO-to-worker pay ratio for S&P 500 companies, excluding Elon Musk at Tesla, rose to 312-to-1 in 2025 from 285-to-1 in 2024. (cnbc.com) Including Musk, AFL-CIO said the average ratio was 5,387-to-1 because of Tesla’s outlier compensation figure. A 350-to-1 claim is directionally consistent with older public debates over CEO pay, but AFL-CIO’s current published figure for the broad S&P 500 sample it tracks is 312-to-1 excluding Musk. (rand.org) Sanders’ social post appears to have used a rounded or differently sourced version of the ratio rather than AFL-CIO’s headline 2026 average. ### Why do these numbers keep resurfacing in Sanders’ messaging? (aflcio.org) Sanders has repeatedly tied both statistics to tax and labor policy arguments. His March 2025 Senate release used the RAND estimate to oppose additional tax cuts for wealthy Americans and to argue for stronger support for healthcare, housing, education and nutrition assistance. (aflcio.org) The AFL-CIO’s Paywatch project also presents CEO-worker ratios as a measure of economic inequality and publishes company-by-company disclosures drawn from public filings. That gives politicians, unions and advocates a recurring dataset they can cite when executive compensation disclosures are updated each year. ### What should readers take from the post itself? The key point is that Sanders was citing existing research, not announcing a new government estimate on September 7. (sanders.senate.gov) RAND’s $79 trillion figure refers to cumulative lost income under a more equal-growth scenario through 2023, and AFL-CIO’s latest published CEO-worker ratio for the S&P 500 is 312-to-1 excluding Tesla’s Elon Musk. (aflcio.org) AFL-CIO’s 2026 Paywatch database and RAND’s 2025 working paper are the primary places to check the underlying methodology and latest published figures. Sanders’ post linked the inequality argument back into the 2026 tax-policy debate, but the source material predates the post. (aflcio.org) (rand.org)