The average salary of CEOs worldwide has increased by 50% in real terms since 2019, while the average worker's salary has increased by only 0.9% over the same period.
Since 2019, CEO salaries have increased 56 times more than workers' salaries, according to a report by the global charity Oxfam, published on the occasion of International Workers' Day.
Oxfam conducted a survey among 2,000 companies in 35 countries, where executives earned more than 1 million. USD (EUR 885.8 million) in 2024.
The organization found that some of the highest-paid CEOs in Europe are in Ireland and Germany, who will earn an average of USD 6.7 million (EUR 5.9 million) and USD 4.7 million (EUR 4.1 million) per year respectively in 2024.
For comparison, the average CEO salary in South Africa in 2024 was USD 1.6 million (EUR 1.4 million), while in India it was 2 million. USD (1.7 million euros).
“Year after year we see the same grotesque spectacle: CEO salaries increase while workers' wages barely change“, said Amitabh Behar, executive director of Oxfam International.
“This is not a failure of the system - the system is working exactly as intended, increasing wealth more and more while millions of working people struggle to afford rent, food and healthcare“, Behar added.
Of the 45,501 corporations surveyed where the CEO earned more than 10 million USD (8.86 million euros) and whose gender was openly stated, less than 7% were headed by a woman.
“Workers around the world are being deprived of the basics of life while corporations make record profits, evade taxes and lobby to avoid accountability“, said Luc Triangel, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
Billionaires, who often own large corporations in whole or in part, have amassed an average of USD 206 billion (EUR 182.7 billion) in new wealth over the past year.
This equates to USD 23,500 (EUR 20,836) per hour and exceeds the average global income in 2023. from USD 21,000 (EUR 18,621).
Although the International Labour Organization (ILO) said that real wages will grow by 2.7% in 2024, many workers are seeing wage stagnation: last year, real wage growth was 0.6% in France, South Africa and Spain.
Wage inequality has declined globally, but remains particularly high in low-income countries, where the income share of the richest 10% is 3.4 times higher than that of the poorest 40%.