The gap between the best- and worst-paid workers in Switzerland is expected to widen in 2023, with top managers earning on average 143 times more than their lowest-paid employees, according to a study published by trade union Unia on Monday.
The study said the pay gap would rise by 139 times by 2022, with the country's largest bank, UBS, having the largest gap.
UBS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pay at the bank has become a point of political debate, with Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter earlier this year criticizing the 14.4 million Swiss francs ($16.99 million) that UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti will receive in 2023.
The report said that drugmaker Novartis had the second-largest pay gap, while Nestle came in third.
Novartis and Nestlé did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
By comparison, last year the average FTSE 100 executive in Britain earned 120 times more than the national average salary, according to the High Pay Centre, a think tank.
The pay gap in Switzerland is at its highest since 2019, when CEO salaries were 148 times lower, Yunia said.
“The gap between the highest- and lowest-paid workers is huge and growing,” said Noemi Zurlinden, an economist at Unia.
Inequality continued to rise in Switzerland, even though companies were able to pay more because they paid large dividends and bought back shares, the report's authors said.
While higher-income earners are making more money, lower- and middle-income earners are seeing their purchasing power decline as real wages stagnate due to inflation, Zurlinden said.
“There is no justification for CEOs to earn so much more than ordinary workers. Redistributing economic gains better is especially important in times of rising costs of living.”
(1 dollar = 0.8475 Swiss franc)
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