MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

In Chile it's 14 times better to be an executive than a worker

A recent study by the Mercer Human Resource Consulting (MHRC) group found that the average executive salary in Chile is 14 times greater than the average worker paycheck.

This put Chile in the same "gap" league as Vietnam, Panama and China. At the other end of the scale was Sweden, with a 3.1 pay differential. Norway and Ireland followed, with a 3.4 pay scale differential. Mercer's study, entitled "International Geographic Salary Differentials," reviewed the pay scales of 124 companies in Chile with a structure and human resource unit. "Countries that pay the least have the highest gap, as opposed to those countries that pay good salaries," said MHRC. "In developing countries it is necessary to consider supply and demand, since these countries have to pay more at the highest levels to attract and keep good executives. Salary gaps are also influenced by cultural factors. Countries with strong social hierarchies have even bigger gaps." The first five countries with the lowest salary gaps were European, three of them Scandinavian. All these countries boast progressive tax systems and excellent social security plans to bring greater equity to salaries. The Santiago Times