National Federation of Petroleum Workers compares the income of Petrobras workers with that of seven other large oil multinationals
According to a survey carried out by the Latin American Institute of Socioeconomic Studies (Ilaese), the average annual salary of workers at Petrobras is one of the lowest among competing companies in the world oil market. The research compares the income of employees of the largest oil company in Brazil and one of the largest in the world, with that of seven other large multinationals, and highlights the trend of growth in remuneration in international companies, in view of the continuous fall in the average salary of workers at Petrobras, in the last decade.
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The research is based on reports released by the companies themselves. “For comparison purposes, we calculated the average salary as a result of the ratio between the salary mass disclosed by the company and the total number of direct workers employed. In all cases, the respective amounts were converted into dollars, following the average annual exchange rate”, explain Nazareno Godeiro and Gustavo Machado, researchers at Ilaese.
Salary at Petrobras is lower than that of the Italian Eni, the Spanish Repsol, the French Total and the Chinese Cnooc
The survey points out that, in 2011, the average salary at Petrobras was US$ 98,5 a year. In 2020, remuneration fell to US$ 61,9, a value 67% lower than the income of workers at Norwegian Equinor and 60% below the annual earnings of employees at British BP. The salary at the Brazilian oil giant is also lower than that of the Italian Eni (40%), the Spanish Repsol (30%), the French Total (26%) and the Chinese Cnooc (14%).
The study reveals that the only company that paid less than Petrobras was Petrochina, with an average salary of US$ 49 last year. The researchers highlight, however, the opposite wage evolution of both companies, since the average annual remuneration of workers at Petrobras fell continuously between 2011 and 2020, by US$ 33,1, and that of Petrochina rose by US$ 22,3 in the same period. While at the Brazilian state-owned company there was a 37% drop in the average annual salary, at the Chinese company the average salary grew by 82%.
“By the indicated trend, we see that it is a matter of time for the average remuneration of Petrochina workers to exceed that of Petrobras employees, as has already happened with the Chinese oil company Cnooc”, evaluate the scholars.
Every year, the gap between Petrobras salaries and those of its competitors widens.
The conclusion of the survey is that each year the chasm between Petrobras salaries and those of its competitors deepens. “In the last decade, in all the companies considered in the study, there was a nominal increase in the average remuneration of workers. The only exception was Total. But, while in the French company the retraction of wages was 9,94%, in Petrobras the reduction reached 37%. That is, a difference almost four times greater”.
The survey also refers to the percentage that the wage bill occupies over the company's total revenue. In the case of Petrobras, only 5,66% of the collection is directed towards the wages and benefits of its direct workers. This index is close to that of BP (5,49%), Cnooc (5,13%) and Repsol (5,60%) and well below Equinor (8,73%), Total (7,44%), Petrochina (7,63%) and Eni (6,51%).
“It is important to point out that all related companies are multinationals operating all over the world. The Italian Eni, for example, has most of its exploration fields in Africa, with a currency even more devalued than the real. Despite this, the remuneration of its workers and the fraction of net income are higher than those of Petrobras”, affirm Godeiro and Machado.
By – FNP
