The shareholder takes it all, the worker standing small— in the adjusted words of ABBA. These days, investors of companies are gliding away from the boardroom with way more money than those who keep the wheel turning.
Over the past couple of years, shareholders have been on a spree, far surpassing employees in terms of what they pocket. It all means that today, International Workers’ Day, “is more of a celebration for how well shareholders have done rather than workers,” Alex Maitland, health and inequality policy advisor at Oxfam International, tells Fortune.
The inequality between those at the top and bottom of the food chain has widened during the pandemic. From 2020 to 2023, shareholders far outpaced workers as their dividend payments grew 14 times faster than employee salaries across 31 countries, according to a report from Oxfam. Looking at asset management company Janus Henderson’s Global Dividend Index, to gauge dividend payments and Trading Economics for wages, Oxfam found the shareholders’ worth amounted to 81% of the international GDP in just three years.
Companies and their investors seem to have bounced back from COVID-19 and wartime inflation, but that growth hasn’t really been reflected in workers’ wages, adds Maitland. Across the globe, dividend payouts soared by 45% in three years, totaling $195 billion. But for the average worker, wages increased by a measly 3.3% over the same time frame. During a time marked by a high cost of living, the sluggish pace of said raises is not nearly enough to provide financial security.
As it stands, only 2 of the 37 countries Oxfam analyzed using Living Wage Coalition data have instituted a minimum wage above the living wage. On average, most minimum wages only cover 38% of said living standard.
The disparity between investor and worker profits exposes a deeper hypocrisy, explains Maitland, which “contradicts so much of what big companies like to put out there about how they're for their employees and that society,” he said. “Looking at the shareholders’ winnings it becomes obvious that these employers” are clearly prioritizing the shareholder interest, but [also] goes to show that what they say is so different to what they actually do.”
Of course, the solidification of shareholder power—and the 1% in general—has been a decades-long process. The prioritization of the few-but-powerful mighty stretches back to the 1970s, or what Maitland calls “the dawn of this neoliberal project.” But as he explains, they were walking away with about 10% of company profits back then, and now they’re raking in between 70% and 90%. The early 2020s have been marked by back-to-back record years for shareholders, and Janus Henderson dividend data projects this year will be no different, Maitland adds.