Top CEOs got an average hike of 9% in 2022, workers’ wages fell 3%: Oxfam

The average salary hike of top-paid chief executive officers (CEOs) in four countries, India, the USA, the UK and South Africa, was 9 per cent, but the workers in these countries saw their salary dip by 3.19 per cent, an analysis by Oxfam on International Workers’ Day on May 1 showed.

Based on data from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and government agencies, the analysis also showed that workers in these countries worked “for free” for six days last year because their wages lagged behind inflation.

One billion workers in 50 countries took an average pay cut of $685 in 2022, a collective loss of $746 billion in real wages, compared to if wages had kept up with inflation, it said.