The top marginal tax rate is already 37% and kicks in at $510,300 for a single person. So if your payout is a million, say, then what happens is that your "less

The top marginal tax rate is already 37% and kicks in at $510,300 for a single person. So if your payout is a million, say, then what happens is that your "less salary" (let's pretend you've slaved away for a pittance of, say, $200k) is taxed normally, and then the first $300 or so of your imagined payout is also taxed normally, but the last bit, the amount over $510,300, is taxed at an additional 13% over what happens today. So if by "a lot less lucrative" you meant "13% less lucrative," then okay.