Posted 12/05/2023 – Updated 12/05/2023
Income inequality is advancing in the midst of crisis in the world, and even more so, in Brazil
The highest-paid CEOs in four countries saw their salaries increase by 9% in 2022, while the salaries of male and female workers fell by 3.19% over the same period, according to a recent analysis by Oxfam.
In Brazil, the wages of male and female workers decreased by an average of 6.9% last year, while corporate shareholders and CEOs received $33.8 billion in the period, an increase of 23.8% in earnings and profits compared to 2021 ($27.3 billion).
The inflation-adjusted figures are based on data from the International Labor Organization and government statistical agencies.
One billion workers in 50 countries took an average $685 cut in their wages in 2022, a collective loss of $746 billion in real wages (if wages are adjusted for inflation).
Women and girls work at least 380 billion hours each month in unpaid care work. Women workers are often forced to work shorter hours or quit their jobs due to unpaid care activities. They also face discrimination, harassment and lower wages than men.
“While CEOs of large corporations benefit from increases in their salaries and dividends, the bulk of the population, who are wage workers, have cut wages and can barely keep up with the cost of living in their own countries. Years of austerity and attacks on unions have widened the gap between the rich And the rest of us. This disparity is unacceptable and, unfortunately, not surprising,” says Katia Maia, Executive Director of Oxfam Brazil.
“The only increase the working class will see in 2022 is unpaid care work, which falls largely on women.”
Workers lose, entrepreneurs win
While the working class sees its wages fall year after year (more than 10% in Sweden, 6.9% in Brazil, 3.2% in the US and UK), CEOs are getting richer:
150 CEOs in India earned an average of $1 million in 2022, a real increase of 2% over 2021. An Indian entrepreneur earns more in four hours than the average Indian worker earns in a whole year.
The top 100 CEOs in the US earned an average of $24 million in 2022, an annual increase of 15%. The average US worker would have to work 413 years to earn what the highest paid CEO in the country earns in 12 months. Fifty percent of black women in the United States earn less than $15 an hour.
The UK’s top 100 highest paid CEOs earned an average of $5m in 2022 – a real 4.4% increase from 2021. They earn 140 times more than the average worker.
South Africa’s highest-paid businessmen earned an average of $800,000 in 2022, 43 times the average salary of workers in the country. The real increase in the income of entrepreneurs was 13% in 2022.
Dividends earned by shareholders in 2022 hit a record $1.56 trillion, up 10% from 2021. American companies paid out $574 billion to their shareholders, more than double the cut made to real wages for workers in the country. Shareholders of Brazilian companies received US$34 billion, about the same amount that workers in the country received from cuts in their wages.
These exorbitant payments to shareholders benefit the wealthiest in society, and add to already high levels of inequality. The richest 1% in South Africa now own more than 95% of the bonds and stocks of companies in the country. In the United States, the richest 1% own 54% of the shares in the country.
However, taxes on income from these earnings and credits, which help fund public services such as health and education, have fallen over the years – from 61% in 1980 to 42% today.
Originally published on OXFAM Brazil
