Map
Case

Mondragon: Spanish cooperative and its pay-ratio ceiling

Mondragon Corporation's 2023 annual report (92 cooperatives, 70,500 people) states a wage scale of "1-6" between the minimum and maximum salaries. Other sources differ by year and perimeter: Reuten (2023) cites a 2015 interview with Mondragon International's then president on a maximum gap of 1:6 and lists other studies from 3:1 to 9:1, while Bretos and colleagues (2019) report that the bottom-to-top ratio widened from 1:3 to 1:8 in some cooperatives. Illustrates testing the arguments used to justify high pay.

Industry
Cooperative
Frameworks applied
Four arguments for high pay, tested
Clipboard with a glass checklist panel, icon for consulting

Frameworks applied

This case is read through the frameworks below.

  • Four arguments for high pay, testedWhen a board approves a very high pay package for its CEO, which argument (talent, effort, contribution, incentive) holds up under objection, and which collapses?

Sources

References

Listed A–Z by author surname, Harvard style. A source with a DOI links to https://doi.org/…; one without links to its page or says plainly that it has no DOI.

  1. Bretos, I., Errasti, A. and Marcuello, C. (2019) ‘Multinational expansion of worker cooperatives and their employment practices: markets, institutions, and politics in Mondragon’, ILR Review, 72(3), pp. 580–605.doi:10.1177/0019793918779575Source page
  2. MONDRAGON Corporation (2023) Annual Report 2023. Mondragón: MONDRAGON Corporation (MONDRAGON annual reports).No DOImondragon-corporation.comCited in 1 article
  3. Reuten, G. (2023) ‘The Mondragon Worker Cooperatives' Employment Record 1983–2019’, Journal of Labor and Society, 26(3), pp. 336–375.doi:10.1163/24714607-bja10080Source page