Top CEO pay increased 20 times faster than workers’ pay in 2025

• Global real worker pay fell 12 percent while real CEO pay surged 54 percent between 2019 and 2025. 
• In Canada, average worker wages have decreased by 0.9 percent since 2024, while CEO pay has increased by 9.1 percent between 2024 and 2025. 
• At least four CEOs of major corporations each pocketed over US$100 million in pay and bonuses last year.  The average pay of the top 100 Canadian CEOs soared to a new record in 2024 at CA$16.2 million.  
• Billionaires were paid US$2,500 per second in dividends in 2025. 
• In Canada, total billionaire wealth increased by CA$659 million a day in 2025, with billionaire wealth now equivalent to 18.9 percent of Canada’s GDP. 
• The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and Oxfam are calling for urgent action to rein in extreme wealth, including higher, fairer taxes on the richest and binding limits on CEO pay. 

Chief executives of the world’s largest corporations enjoyed an 11 percent real-terms pay hike last year, while the average global worker saw real wages increase by just 0.5 percent, reveals new analysis by the ITUC and Oxfam ahead of International Workers’ Day (1 May).

The analysis covers the top-paying 1,500 corporations across 33 countries which have reported CEO pay for 2025. The average CEO pocketed US$8.4 million in pay and bonuses last year, up from US$7.6 million in 2024. It would take the average global worker 490 years to earn the same amount.

According to Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), the average compensation of Canada’s 100 highest paid CEOs reached a record high of CA$16.2 million in 2024. To even make it into the list of top 100 highest paid CEO, they had to earn at least CA$7.2 million. An average worker took home CA$65,548, which is up by almost CA$3000 from the previous year. However, the top-paid CEO compensation went up by CA$3 million. By the second day of the year, Canada’s top 100 CEOs had already earned what the average worker will make all year.

The gender pay gap for the workforce across these 1,500 corporations averages 16 percent, meaning that these women workers effectively work for free from 4 November each year. In Canada, women’s labour income is only 77% of men’s.

The growing chasm between CEO compensation and average worker pay is part of a long-term trend in which executives and shareholders are capturing an ever-larger slice of the global economic pie.

Global real wages for workers have fallen by 12 percent since 2019. This means they have effectively worked 108 days for free between 2019 and 2025 (31 days for free last year alone). Meanwhile, CEO pay has skyrocketed ―from an average of US$5.5 million in 2019 to US$8.4 million in 2025, a 54 percent increase in real terms. Between 2024 and 2025, Canada’s average worker wages have reduced by 0.9 percent, while CEO pay increased by 9.1 percent. CEOs of the top paid Canadian corporations earned 248 times more than the typical worker.

The ITUC and Oxfam’s analysis of shareholdings reveals that the super-rich are receiving significant payouts from the corporations they control. Nearly 1,000 billionaires whose investment portfolios were identified collectively received US$79 billion in dividends in 2025 —equivalent to US$2,500 per second. The average billionaire made more in dividends in less than two hours than the average worker earned in pay in an entire year.

Payouts from corporations are often funneled into undermining workers’ rights and democracy.

• Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, has used his wealth to become a major stakeholder in Paramount, which was purchased by his son’s company and includes major broadcast networks CBS.  
• In France, far-right billionaire Vincent Bolloré now controls CNews, and has rebranded it as the French equivalent of Fox News.  
• In 2024, Oxfam filed a formal UN complaint against Amazon and Walmart’s systematic human rights violations. Amazon and Walmart’s outsized wealth and power in the economy have enabled them to clamp down on unionization efforts and collective organizing. 

Billionaires are also leveraging their wealth to buy political influence. A global survey found that half of people believe “the rich often buy elections” in their countries. Oxfam estimates that billionaires are 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary people. Many super-rich politicians have sought to erode workers’ rights, cut public services, and deliver tax cuts to the richest.

Extreme wealth in Canada is on the rise and increasingly shaping economic and political power. As billionaire fortunes surge, key industries like telecom and groceries are dominated by a small number of corporations, driving high prices for consumers. At the same time, the richest 1% in Canada hold nearly CA$3.9 trillion – as much wealth as the bottom 80% combined. This growing wealth concentration and corporate power risks undermining hard work, fair wages and shifting public policy away from the needs of working people. 

“This analysis exposes the billionaire coup against democracy, and its costs for working people. Companies promise us a virtuous cycle, but what we see is a vicious cycle led by mega corporations —they undermine collective bargaining and social dialogue while billionaire CEOs capture the wealth created by productivity gains. The super-rich then use enormous resources to fund anti-democratic political projects,” said ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle.

“These projects shift the blame for growing inequality onto marginalized groups, such as migrants, women and minorities in order to distract from the true culprits: their rich benefactors. They divide working people while dismantling and undermining democratic institutions and promoting policies that allow the super-rich to become even richer, at the expense of workers’ rights, safety and livelihoods. They attack democratic organizations like unions and block any avenues for popular reform, ensuring that the vicious anti-worker cycle continues.”

Billionaire wealth has reached record highs in 2026. In just 12 months, they have gained $4 trillion —bringing their wealth to US$1.5 trillion more than that of the poorest 4.1 billion people combined. There are 400 more billionaires compared to last year, and 45 of these new billionaires have made their fortunes in artificial intelligence.

Canada’s economic inequality has reached crisis levels mirroring global trends. In the past year alone, Canada minted 12 new billionaires, bringing the total to 89 billionaires. At the same time, the country’s wealth gap continues to widen, with the richest Canadians holding on average 210 times more wealth than the bottom 50%.

“We can’t continue to let a handful of super-rich people siphon off the rewards of work that belong to millions. Governments must cap CEO pay, fairly tax the super-rich and ensure minimum wages at the very least keep pace with inflation and ensure a dignified living. And workers must be able to exercise, without fear or obstruction, their rights to organize, to strike, and to bargain collectively. They are the ones who generate society’s wealth; they should be able to claim, as a matter of justice, what they are due,” said Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar.

“These measures can do far more than redistribute income; they can create economies that reward work, invest in communities, and hold powerful interests accountable. This is how we turn a system rigged for the few into one that works for everyone.”

Ends

Notes to Editors:

Download the ITUC and Oxfam’s media briefing and methodology note for more information, tables and graphs.
In 2024, Oxfam submitted a formal complaint against Amazon and Walmart to the United Nations. Read more about surveillance and suffering at Amazon and Walmart warehouses.
The World Values Survey Wave 7 found that half of people believe “the rich often buy elections” in their countries.
Oxfam’s estimates that billionaires are 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary people.
Download the ITUC’s report “Corporate Underminers of Democracy 2025.”
All global monetary values are presented in US dollars (US$), and all Canadian monetary statistics are presented in Canadian dollars (CA$)

Media Contact:

Laveza Khan: laveza.khan@oxfam.org / +1 (613) 240 4157.