Top Belgian CEOs earn average annual salary in six days: report

BRUSSELS, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- In the six working days since Jan. 1, CEOs at Bel 20 (list of 20 biggest companies traded at the Brussels Stock Exchange) earned the equivalent of one year's salary for the average worker, according a Christian trade union (CNE) report published on Monday.

With a median annual salary of 2.08 million euros (2.49 million U.S. dollars) in 2016, CNE estimates that the CEOs of Bel 20 will have seen their annual income increase by 25.7 percent in one year.

It also reveals that in 2016, top CEOs had an income 46 times greater than the average earner, compared to 38 times greater in 2015.

"The growth of wealth inequality is linked to our economic system. If we do nothing to prevent them, they will increase," a CNE official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

"To reduce inequalities, we must act on two levels. The first is to make sure that everyone earns a good enough living with good wages, without excessive differences. The second is to ensure a fair redistribution between all these people, those who earn a lot and those who earn little or nothing (through taxation, public services and social security for example)," the official added.

The CNE is a union that defends workers employed in the French-speaking region of Belgium. Enditem