Global shareholder payouts rise 14 times faster than wages - Oxfam report

Global dividend payments to shareholders have grown an average of 14 times faster than worker pay across 31 countries over the last three years, according to a report published by Oxfam on International Workers' Day.

The charity said the division of profits in economies that account for 81 percent of of gross domestic product (GDP) is heavily skewed to shareholders and creates "a yawning gap" between the "super-rich and the rest."

The global data analysis also shows that in the UK, after taking inflation into account, dividends increased by 13 percent between 2020 and 2023, while average wages remained stagnant.

Oxfam said the Janus Henderson global dividend index, which monitors annual corporate dividends, was on course this year to beat an all-time high of $1.66tn reached last year. The index covers the world's largest 1,200 corporations, representing 90 percent of global dividends paid.

After adjusting for inflation, dividend payouts climbed by 45 percent ($195 billion) in 31 countries between 2020 and 2023, while wages grew by just 3 percent, the report said.

Excluding China, which accounts for most of this wage growth, global real wages in these countries fell by 3 percent during this period.

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Using data from Wealth-X, Oxfam estimates the richest 1 percent, who now own 43 percent of all global financial assets, pocketed on average $9,000 in dividends in 2023. It says this is equivalent to eight months of hard work and wages for the average worker.

"Corporate profits and payouts to rich shareholders have gone into the stratosphere, while wages continue to go nowhere," said Oxfam International interim Executive Director Amitabh Behar.

"Millions of people hold jobs that trap them in a cycle of working hard while still unable to afford enough food, medicine or other basics. The super-rich don't amass their mega-fortunes by 'working' - they extract it from people who do."

The report also highlights previous warnings by the UN's International Labour Organization (ILO) who has been concerned with the rising numbers of working people living in poverty - skipping meals, getting into debt, and going without the basics. 

Using ILO data on in-work poverty, Oxfam found that nearly one in five workers globally earns a wage below the $3.65 poverty line, while 66 percent of workers in low-income countries earn poverty wages.

"No corporation should be shelling out to rich shareholders unless it's paying a living wage to all its workers," Behar added. "Governments must cap payouts to shareholders, support trade unions and legislate for living wages. We should be rewarding work, not wealth."

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