Respondents in India felt that company CEOs should take an average 60% cut in their salaries, according to a new report on income inequality, which also showed that a common worker’s perception of a CEO’s salary was far lower than the actual amount.
Oxfam’s report titled ‘Reward Work, Not Wealth’ found that the richest 1% in the world owns more wealth than the whole of the rest of humanity; 82% of all growth in global wealth in the last year went to the top 1%, while the bottom half of the world’s population saw no increase at all.
“Oxfam’s polling in 10 countries, representing one-quarter of the world’s population, shows that the public thinks CEOs should have their pay cut,” the report said. “Across all countries, respondents think CEOs should on average take a 40% pay cut. In countries like the U.K., U.S. and India, respondents think CEOs should take a 60% pay cut.”
The report also found that while most people in India thought CEOs earned 63 times the salary of an ‘ordinary worker’, and felt that they should earn only 14 times more, the actuality was that CEOs in India earn a shocking 483 times more salary.
The richest 1% in India accounted for 73% of the wealth generated in the country last year, according to the report, which added that the poorer half of the population —about 67 crore people — saw their wealth increase by only 1%.
The survey showed that the wealth of India’s richest 1% increased by over ₹20.9 trillion during 2017 — an amount equivalent to the total budget of the Central government in 2017-18.
Billionaire wealth
“Between 2006 and 2015, ordinary workers saw their incomes rise by an average of just 2% a year, while billionaire wealth rose by nearly 13% a year — almost six times faster,” the report said.
It also found that about a third of all billionaire wealth was derived from inheritance. “Over the next 20 years, 500 of the world’s richest people will hand over $2.4 trillion to their heirs — a sum larger than the GDP of India, a country of 1.3 billion people,” the report said.
“In total, Oxfam has calculated that approximately two-thirds of billionaire wealth is the product of inheritance, monopoly and cronyism,” the report added. “Oxfam’s survey of 10 countries shows that over half of respondents think that despite hard work, it is difficult or impossible for ordinary people to increase the money they have.”
Nearly two-thirds of all respondents felt the gap between the rich and the poor needs to be addressed urgently or very urgently — this number was 73% in India.
“In countries like India and the Philippines, at least one in every two workers in the garment sector are paid below the minimum wage,” the report found, adding that this imbalance is even starker for women in the sector, with 74% of them earning less than the minimum wage.
( With PTI inputs )
Published - January 22, 2018 03:06 pm IST
