World's biggest companies accept growing inequality as defining challenge

More than 30 of the world’s biggest companies signed on to an effort to spread the benefits of economic growth, saying that rising inequality is the “defining challenge of our time.”

The initiative, sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, is set to be unveiled by President Emmanuel Macron as he prepares to host the G7 summit this weekend in Biarritz, France. Participants include international giants such as JPMorgan Chase & Co., L’Oreal and Danone.

“The middle class is shrinking in most G7 countries, whereas it is the foundation of market economy around the world,” Danone Chairman Emmanuel Faber said