The 10% of the best paid workers currently take 38% of the global wage bill, while the 10% of the lowest paid earn only 0.5% of the totalaccording to the most recent analyzes presented this Thursday by the International Labor Organization (ILO).
The general director of the organization, Gilbert Houngbopresented to the press the conclusions of the most recent studies that have been done on the evolution of salaries in the worldparticularly after the exceptional period that was the covid-19 pandemic.
Based on a sample of 72 countries that represent 73% of the world’s salaried workersthe conclusion is that two out of three countries have registered a decrease in inequalities since the beginning of this century, more markedly in the case of low- and lower-intermediate-income countries.
However, in general, wage inequalities have decreased much more in the upper half of the wage scale than in the lower half, according to the ILO report on global wage developments.
This has been partly a consequence of the rise in real wages around the world, which have grown faster than inflation in recent times.
Recovery of salaries
After a global drop of 0.9% in 2022, Real wages recovered 1.8% last yearalthough if China – where rapid wage growth had a significant impact on the global average – is excluded from this calculation, growth was 1.3%.
The preliminary data available to the ILO indicate that in In the first half of 2024, real wages increased by 2.7% (2.3% if China is excluded), which would represent the most significant increase in fifteen years.
By region, the only ones where wage growth did not recover in 2023 were in Africa, North America and western, northern and southern Europe.
ILO analysts highlight in their report that Although there is a tendency for wage inequality to decrease, this is based on a large base difference and salaries vary strongly according to whether the country is low, middle and high income, where they stand at 201, 630 and 3,333 dollars (at a conversion rate according to purchasing power), respectively.
This means that A worker with an average salary in a middle-income country will have purchasing power that is less than 20% of the one who has a worker on the same salary scale in a high-income countrywhile for the worker in the low-income country that purchasing power will be barely 6%.
The conclusion is that although Wage gaps have narrowed in the first quarter of the 21st centuryinequalities in income from work continue to be too high, in response to which the ILO proposes that collective bargaining or the setting of a legal minimum wage – through a dialogue between government, employers and unions – be the main way to adjust salaries in the countries.
Likewise, it considers necessary mechanisms to promote equal pay between men and womensince the latter are more likely to be among the lowest paid.
The same is true for wage earners in the informal economy, who represent the majority of workers in poor countries and almost half in middle-income countries.
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