Most workers would have to labour for more than 200 years to earn what some fatcat bosses make in a year.
Research from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions shows chief executives are milking it this year while workers struggle to ends meet.
Increased cost of living, new carbon levies and no tax relief in the Budget for workers means people are facing into Christmas poorer this year.
But the festive season is bonus time for executives and Scrooges at some of Ireland’s biggest firms are paying themselves huge salaries as profits begin to soar again.
The researchers at Congress have crunched the numbers and the shocking findings reveal the salaries for the chiefs at the top companies on the Irish Stock Exchange are hundreds of times more than the staff who do all the work at the bottom.
Congress this morning publishes the fourth in a series of annual reports on chief executives’ pay - Because We’re Worth It: The truth about CEO pay in Ireland.
Based on last year’s accounts, 20 of the biggest companies listed on the Irish Stock Exchange and six Irish-based companies listed in London had CEO pay increases ranging from 9% in Permanent TSB to a 99% increase in Smurfit Kappa.
Meanwhile, the average full-time worker’s wage was up just 2.6% on 2017.
Salaries and benefits were near or above €1million for 22 of the 26 CEOs, and as much as €8.2million.
ICTU spokeswoman Eileen Sweeney said: “At 212-to-one, building materials company CRH continues to have the highest chief executive to average worker pay ratio. That is, it would take an ordinary worker 212 years to earn what the boss took home in 2018.
“This is marginally narrower on the previous year as a result of a €296,000 reduction in the bonus paid to the chief executive to €2.04million in 2018.
“However, a wide divide persists. It would take an average worker more than 50 years to earn what half of the bosses at top Irish companies take home each year.”
ICTU general secretary Patricia King is calling for reforms.
She said: “The telephone number-like-salaries and the unjustifiable gap between the top and rest needs to be urgently tackled.
“This is now recognised by the European Commission and the OECD – institutions not known to be natural bedfellows of trade unions.”
For the first time the EU Shareholder Rights Directive requires listed companies to explain how workers’ pay was taken into account when determining the bosses salaries. Ms King added: “The Government refuses to grasp the opportunity the directive presents to include more ambitious provisions – such as legally obliging listed companies to make pay ratio disclosure.
