Executives of the world’s largest corporations achieved a real salary growth of 11 percent last year, while average worker salaries globally increased by only 0.5 percent, according to a new analysis by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and Oxfam published ahead of International Workers’ Day.
In other words, they emphasize, the salaries of the highest-paid directors in the world grew 20 times faster than workers’ salaries in 2025.
In the U.S. alone, director salaries grew 20.4 times faster than workers’ salaries in the past year. For 384 directors of companies whose stocks are included in the S&P 500 index and for which data was available, salaries increased by 25.6 percent between 2024 and 2025. Meanwhile, average hourly wages for workers employed in the private sector increased by only 1.3 percent.
This analysis covers 1,500 corporations with the highest salaries in 33 countries that reported director salaries for 2025. On average, a director received $8.4 million in salary and bonuses last year, compared to $7.6 million in 2024. The average global worker would need 490 years to earn the same amount, ITUC and Oxfam highlight in their analysis.
So far, four corporations, including American Blackstone, Broadcom, and Goldman Sachs, have reported that they paid their CEO more than $100 million in 2025. The ten highest-paid directors together earned more than $1 billion.
Real wages for workers globally have fallen by 12 percent since 2019. Meanwhile, director salaries have sharply increased – from an average of $5.5 million in 2019 to $8.4 million in 2025, representing a real increase of 54 percent, the analysis states.
Corporate owners received $79 billion in dividends last year
An analysis of ownership shares conducted by ITUC and Oxfam also reveals that the super-rich receive significant payouts from the corporations they control. Nearly 1,000 billionaires whose investment portfolios were identified collectively received $79 billion in dividends in 2025, equivalent to $2,500 per second. The average billionaire earned from dividends in less than two hours more than the average worker earned in an entire year, they state.
Some of the largest payouts in 2025 were received by Bernard Arnault, owner of the luxury brand LVMH, who received $3.8 billion, and Amancio Ortega, owner of Inditex (Zara), who received $3.7 billion.
Billionaire wealth reached record levels in 2026. In just 12 months, they increased their wealth by $4 trillion, making their wealth $1.5 trillion greater than that of the 4.1 billion poorest people in the world combined. Compared to last year, there are 400 more billionaires, and 45 of these new billionaires became wealthy through artificial intelligence.
“Governments must limit director salaries, fairly tax the super-rich, and ensure that minimum wages at least keep pace with inflation and allow for a decent living. Workers must be able to exercise, without fear and obstacles, their rights to organize, strike, and collectively bargain. They are the ones who create the wealth of society; they should be able to demand, as a matter of justice, what is rightfully theirs. These measures can do much more than mere income redistribution; they can create economies that reward work, invest in communities, and hold powerful interests accountable. This way, we can transform a system rigged for a few into a system that works for all,” said Amitabh Behar, CEO of Oxfam.
