OXFAM has just published a report on the distribution of income in the Spanish State, as it has been doing every year. The motto of this year’s report is significant: Unequal distribution. Distribution of the value of the Ibex 35 companies. It is confirmed that the crisis has increased inequalities and in that deepening it is detailed that the contribution of many large companies has been decisive. Indeed, on the pretext of gaining competitiveness, the wage gap is maintained to the detriment of wage adjustment and low tax contributions.

Thus, between 2008 and 2017 the profits of companies have increased by 11.3%, while the overall wages have decreased by 4.2%. At the same time, these companies have shown a generous attitude in favour of their shareholders, which have increased their dividends by 16%. The recipients of these dividends include the group of 30 major international investors, who often send these profits to tax havens. Moreover, the increasing trend in profits has not led to an increase in the tax contribution. On the contrary, large companies spent 11% less money in 2017 than the year before the State Treasury.

On the other hand, the evolution of the wages of large companies is very uneven depending on the professional level. In 2017, high-ranking profits rose five times more than average wages. Thus, the wage gap of the Ibex 35 companies is huge, as, for example, the highest charge earns 132 times more than the average wage.

Therefore, managers and investors of these large companies drive a business model to generate dynamics that increase inequalities. The main share of the profits of the Ibex 35 companies is for both capital and senior management. This trend significantly accentuates the gap between capital and labour income, as well as the wage gap, in short, income inequality.

The report breaks with the logic of austerity policies driven by the European Union (EU). Austerity and, above all, wage cuts are good for strengthening the productivity and competitive position of companies. As Oxfam demonstrates, the significant share of profits generated by large companies has been directed at paying dividends to large shareholders and not so much to productive investment.

The report entails a new central topic: that the company is a common benefit organisation for all its agents, that is, that companies represent a common interest. But, as has already been mentioned, the harsh reality shows that in times of crisis the adjustments suffered by working people do not distribute the good results equitably.

In short, the report itself calls curiosity the extraordinary profits of the top positions of companies. In fact, these benefits have nothing to do with the contribution of the human capital made by this elite or with the boost to productivity. This extravagance can be understood by the key to the power relationship, since executives and CEOs are the ones who decide their wage level, thus causing the decapitalization and financial deterioration of the companies that run them.