Sunday Ojeme 
A new report from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) reveals that wage inequality has decreased in about two-thirds of all countries since 2000.
Despite this positive trend, significant wage differentials persist worldwide. The Global Wage Report 2024-25: “Is wage inequality decreasing globally?”, finds that since the early 2000’s, on average, wage inequality, which compares the wages of high and low wage earners, decreased in many countries at an average rate that ranged from 0.5 to 1.7 per cent annually, depending on the measure used.
The most significant decreases occurred among low-income countries where the average annual decrease ranged from 3.2 to 9.6 per cent in the past two decades.
According to the report by International Labour Organisation (ILO), wage inequality is declining at a slower pace in wealthier countries, shrinking annually between 0.3 and 1.3 per cent in upper-middle-incomecountries, and between 0.3 to 0.7 per cent in high-income countries.
Moreover, even though wage inequality narrowed overall, decreases were more significant among wage workers at the upper end of the pay scale.
The report also finds that global wages have been growing faster than inflation in recent times.
It pointed out that in 2023, global real wages grew by 1.8 per cent with projections reaching 2.7 per cent growth for 2024, the highest increase in more than15 years.
Such positive outcomes mark a notable recovery when compared to the negative global wage growth, of -0.9 per cent, observed in 2022, a period when high inflation rates outpaced nominal wage growth.
However, wage growth has been uneven across regions, with emerging economies experiencing stronger growth than advanced economies, the report finds.
While advanced G20 economies registered a decline in real wages for two consecutive years (−2.8 per cent in 2022 and −0.5 per cent in 2023), real wage growth remained positive for both years in emerging G20 economies (1.8 per cent in 2022 and 6.0 per cent in 2023).
