Just 10 percent of workers receive 48.9 percent of all global pay, according to research by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

However, the lowest paid half of workers receive only 6.4 percent of total pay, while the lowest 20 percent of earners (around 650 million people) earn less than one percent of global income. This figure has hardly changed in 13 years.

The new data found that overall global labour income inequality has fallen since 2004, but this is not due to reductions in inequality within countries, as at a national level pay inequality is actually increasing.

Instead, it is because of inc...