Wage inequality within companies remains high, according to union

Last year, top managers received on average 139 times more pay than the employees with the lowest wages in the same company Keystone / Regina Kuehne

Last year, top managers in Switzerland received on average 139 times more pay than the employees with the lowest wages in the same company. This is the result of a study conducted by the Unia trade union and published on Wednesday.

There is no “acceptable explanation” for why companies would not use “a small part” of their profits to pay “at least halfway” decent wages, Vania Alleva, president of the union, was quoted as saying in a statement. Instead, employees’ real wages have fallen while company profits have risen, she said.

+ Salaries in Switzerland

The union is calling for general wage increases, good collective agreements and decent minimum wages, it said on Wednesday.

For the study, the trade union Unia examined 37 companies, including 34 listed ones. According to the study, the wage gap in 2022 of 1:139 is slightly lower than in the previous year, when it was 1:144.

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