According to Oxfam, Irish workers experienced a nearly 4% pay cut in 2022 due to wage growth lagging behind inflation, while CEOs saw their pay packets increase by more than 25%. The average pay package of the 18 top bosses of Ireland’s largest publicly quoted companies rose by 27% to €3.46 million in 2022, whereas workers lost an average of €2,107 due to high inflation. This means that Irish workers, who fared worse than the global average, worked an extra 8.3 days last year for free, resulting in a loss of more than €5 billion. Moreover, a recent OECD report stated that Irish households experienced one of the biggest erosions in living standards since the 2008 financial crisis. Oxfam has also called for greater taxation of the ultra-rich and meaningful windfall taxes on excessive corporate profits to fight inflation and inequality.
