On 11 December, the NGO Oxfam published the report “Drug Footprint of Large Spanish Companies”, a trace of inequalities between large Spanish companies. The impact of business practices on social and economic inequality, as well as other aspects related to their impact on the environment and their commitments to the ecological footprint, has been analyzed. In Oxfam’s words, “climate change does not equally affect all actors in society, nor do people suffer the same consequences.” To do so, it has analyzed a total of 40 companies from the Spanish state "with the highest turnover", among which 29 are from the Ibex 35 and 11 other listed companies.

118 times the upper executive salary above the average

To become "the first picture" of wage inequality, he's compared the salaries of top executives of big companies to those of the average. In this sense, the executive salary of the 40 companies analyzed is 118 times higher than the current average. In fact, in 58% of the companies analyzed, the difference is 50 times larger.

The CIE Automotive in Bilbao tops the ranking with an CEO salary of 1.208 times the company average. CIE Automotive was born in 2002 from the merger of the Egaña Industrial Corporation and the Aforasa Group, under the executive direction of Jesús María Herrera, who in 2023 won 23.7 million euros and in 2022 received an extraordinary premium of 20 million euros, multiplying by six the total annual remuneration. After CIE Automotive are Indra (480 times) and Inditex (311 times). The companies with the lowest average wage distance are Aena (5 times), DIA (9) and Redeia (12).

The average remuneration received by the top executive in the 40 companies analysed amounts to EUR 4.5 million. The first in the ranking of companies in which Oxfam has so-called “indiscriminate salaries” is again CIE Automotive. Secondly, there is Indra, with a remuneration of EUR 15.5 million, and thirdly, Iberdrola, with EUR 13.8 million. Iberdrola has broken sales records in recent years in the context of the energy crisis and price rises, and the remuneration received by President Ignacio Galán is 212 times higher than the average wage of the company’s employees. At the other end of the ranking are the DIA, whose first executive received a salary of 150,000 euros; Aena, with 187,000; and Redeia, with 833,000 euros.

27 times the members of the Board

The study also analyses the average remuneration of members of the Steering Committee. In the 40 companies analyzed, the highest positions gain an average of 1.15 million euros per year, according to data from 2023. Thus, they charge 27 times the company's average wage. Inditex is the company with the largest wage gap (159), followed by Iberdrola (90) and Banco Santander (74). Redeia and Aena are at the other end (4). Iberdrola is the company that pays the highest wages to its senior managers, with an average of 5.6 million euros, followed by Inditex, with 5.3, and Banco Santander, with 3.6.

Dividends, "focus of inequality"

Oxfam has described corporate dividends as “pockets of inequality.” In fact, over 70% of the profits of companies are used for shareholder dividends. Among them, four have allocated more than 100% of their profits to dividends, using own funds and thus decapitating the company. “Endesa, Fluidra and Sacyr Vallehermoso do that. Meanwhile, Telefónica, despite the losses, decided to generously pay its shareholders in 2023, allocating 1,725 million euros to dividends with a negative result of 574 million euros,” the study explains.