The chief executive officers (CEOs) of the 20 largest and listed companies in Belgium have already earned the equivalent of one year's salary of the median Belgian worker as of today (Monday 9 January).
Monday is CEO Jackpot Day, the French-speaking Christian employees' union CNE announced on Monday morning. According to its calculations, the CEO of one of these companies — commonly referred to as a BEL20 business — takes barely 5.45 working days to earn the equivalent of the annual median salary of an employee in our country, which currently amounts to €50,740.
"A CEO, therefore, earns 48 times the median salary," said Clarisse Van Tichelen, coordinator of the CNE's research department.
Striking gap
When announcing the news, the union also highlighted that after a decrease in 2020 (as seen on the graph below), the remuneration of the BEL 20 CEOs rose sharply in 2021 to reach a median of €2.43 million, exceeding its 2019 level (€2.40 million).
When looking at the evolution of real wages (excluding inflation) since 2014, the CNE noted that for the CEO of a Bel 20 company, this figure rose 34% between 2014 and 2021; the increase for the median wage of an employee was just 9%.
"We can see that the remuneration of the CEOs of the BEL 20 has risen significantly – even if their remuneration varies from one year to the next," said Van Tichelen.
The union stressed that the gap is even more striking with the minimum wage, which for most has fallen almost 2%. In 2021, the minimum wage (guaranteed average monthly minimum income) is €1,658.23. A Bel 20 CEO earns 105 times the minimum wage, CNE noted, earning as much as a minimum wage worker in just a matter of hours.
Related News
- Belgian companies face economy 'tsunami' of up to €55 billion
- UK CEOs earn the annual median salary in just three days
"This shows very clearly that not all salaries are in the same boat. While the salary increases of most workers are blocked by the wage freeze law (1996 law on competitiveness), the salaries of the BEL 20 CEOs have soared in recent years," explained Van Tichelen.
"The salaries of the highest paid workers in Belgium are therefore not subject to this statutory ceiling, while they are blocking the increase in salaries of the majority of workers," she said, adding that the union sees these figures as another reason to abolish "this unfair law", especially in a context where workers' incomes are under pressure from inflation and rising energy prices.
