Oxfam, a group dedicated to fighting poverty, said that the combined fortunes of five men in the world have increased by more than doubling since 2020. Meanwhile, five billion people are poorer.

Oxfam’s report, released as the business elites gathered this week in Davos for the annual World Economic Forum meeting, revealed that 7 out of 10 companies are now run by a billionaire or he is the largest shareholder.

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Oxfam demanded on Monday that governments rein in corporate control by breaking up monopolies, instituting taxes for excess profits and wealth and promoting alternative forms of shareholder control like employee ownership.

The estimated profits of 148 of the world’s largest corporations were $1.8 trillion, up 52 percent on a 3-year average. This allowed for hefty payouts to shareholders, even though millions of workers experienced a crisis of cost of living as inflation caused wage cuts.

Amitabh Behr, interim executive director of Oxfam International said: “This inequality was not an accident. The billionaire class ensures corporations give them more wealth at the expense to everyone else.”

The Davos event was launched to promote “stakeholder capitalism”, according to the WEF, a corporation is not only about maximising profit but also fulfilling “human and social aspirations” as part of a broader social system.

Oxfam’s report, which is based on information from sources such as the International Labour Organization, World Bank, and Forbes annual rich list shows that these goals are far from being achieved.

Max Lawson is the Head of Inequality Policy. He said: “We know that today’s extreme shareholder capitalism system, which places ever-increasing profits for rich shareholders before all other objectives is driving inequality.”

The rise in the wealth of the five richest billionaires, adjusted for inflation, was largely due to the strong growth in assets of Elon Musk of Tesla, Bernard Arnault of LVMH, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle and Warren Buffett, an investor.

Oxfam analysis shows that wages for nearly 800 million workers have not kept up with inflation over the last two years, which is equivalent to 25 days’ worth of annual income lost per worker.

The study found that only 0.4% of the 1,600 biggest corporations in the world have publicly committed themselves to pay workers a minimum wage and support a wage at least equal to the living wage throughout their value chain.