Large institutional investors – pension funds, insurers, sovereign wealth funds, and asset managers – often hold diversified, long-term stakes across large parts of the economy, giving them a structural interest in the forces that shape labour markets and economic stability. Among these forces, firm-level decisions on pay, performance and the distribution of value between labour and capital play a key role, bringing earnings inequality into focus. However, whether large investors have enough leverage to influence earnings distributions through governance and stewardship remains an open question. A further challenge lies in the information landscape, where workforce pay reporting remains uneven and not readily comparable across firms, limiting the metrics available to investors for engagement.
Organised by the OECD Centre for Well-being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity (WISE), with the support of the AXA Foundation for Human Progress (initially concluded with the AXA Research Fund, now part of the AXA Foundation), this hybrid workshop will bring together researchers, institutional investors, civil society actors and international standard-setters to explore where the gaps lie and discuss the data and measurement frameworks needed to support more effective investor engagement on earnings inequality.
The workshop contributes to the OECD Observatory on Social Mobility and Equal Opportunity by advancing understanding of how the private sector can help address rising inequality and foster fairer outcomes for workers.
For further inquiries, please contact wellbeing@oecd.org.
