A century working to equal one year's salary of the top executive

BarcelonaThe highest-paid executives at Spain's 40 largest companies earned 111 times the average salary of their employees, who would have to work for a century to earn what these executives earned in a single year. This is according to the latest edition of the report. Wage gaps in large companiesA report published this Tuesday by Oxfam Intermón delves into the "abysmal" wage gap perpetuated by the country's largest corporations. Despite the growth of the Spanish economy in recent years—GDP has rebounded by an average of 4.74% since 2020—the organization criticizes the fact that this prosperity has not reached the pockets of many citizens. Almost one in three believe their current income does not allow them to live a decent life. In fact, half of all salaried workers earn at most 1.5 times the national minimum wage (SMI), which is currently €1,184 gross per month, paid in 14 installments. Although employees of large companies earn 63% more than the national average, the report emphasizes that it is in these companies where pay disparities skyrocket, "due to the exorbitant salaries of their top executives."

According to the NGO, the most appropriate comparative metric for understanding salary differences within these multinationals is the median, not the mean, which is distorted by the weight of the highest salaries. The median would be the salary of the person who falls exactly in the middle when all employees are ordered from lowest to highest pay. However, this calculation was only published by 28 of the 40 companies analyzed. The company with the greatest disparity is Banco Santander, where the CEO earned 367 times the bank's median salary; followed by the automotive component supplier CIE Automotive (347) and the fashion giant Inditex (196). In 25% of the companies that provide this data, the gap between the highest salary and the median exceeds 100 times, and only in 11% of cases is it less than 20 times. Prosegur, on the other hand, is the corporation where the difference between the highest remuneration and the average salary of the entire workforce is 395 times. This private security group and CIE Automotive are also the companies with the lowest average salaries included in the analysis, while at the same time exhibiting the most pronounced differences. The other side of the coin is the airport operator Aena, where the State controls 51% of the capital and where the highest salary is five times the average; or Redeia (the parent company of Red Eléctrica), where this gap is 13 times. Among private companies, the supermarket chain Dia also stands out, with a ratio of 12 times. The highest-paid person in these 40 companies analyzed by Oxfam Intermón earns an average of €4.37 million per year, and in more than a third of the companies analyzed, the maximum salary exceeds €5 million. These differences are even greater when compared to the majority of workers: the highest-paid executive at Iberdrola earned 586 times the average salary of a Spanish citizen; the highest-paid executive at Banco Santander earned 571 times that figure; and the highest-paid executive at Inditex earned 465 times that figure.

20 years to close the gender gap

“We think this needs to be stopped. It raises doubts even among shareholders, as it can give the impression that top executives are only there to enrich themselves,” Miguel Alba, author of the report and head of inequality and the private sector at Oxfam Intermón, told ARA. According to his analysis, these exaggerated differences can also affect cohesion within the company and the motivation of its employees: “They do the hard work, but those who benefit most clearly from the company's performance are the top management. This can create disaffection and less sense of belonging among the workforce.” In this regard, the report proposes establishing a maximum ratio of 1 to 20 between the highest and average salaries in large companies. Furthermore, the report points out that a persistent gender gap also exists in these companies, which is of two types. In the narrow gap, women earn 8.16% less than men for performing the same work. In the non-competitive sectors, women's average salary is 18.2% lower. Although this disparity has decreased by 5% in the last year, Oxfam Intermón notes that at the current rate, it would take 20 years to achieve pay equality. In some companies, the discrimination is "enormous": at the construction company ACS, the average female salary is 64% lower than the male salary; at Banco Santander, the difference is 57%; and at the insurance company Mapfre, it is 42%.