Corporate profits skyrocket, wages lag behind – Joop

Corporate profits rose twice as fast as employee salaries last year. While pre-tax profits increased by 11 percent last year, employees received only 5 percent more. This is evident from the study ‘Annual Report of the BV Netherlands 2023’ by the FNV. The union bases its profit figures on the annual reports of 70 listed companies, writes the ANP.

Remarkably, the companies’ turnover remained the same. This means that companies succeed in reducing costs. Companies also benefit from lower taxes: profit after tax rose faster last year than profit before tax.

Shareholders are the big winners of the developments, writes the Brabants Dagblad: “In recent years, companies have increasingly paid out more to capital providers. They did this by giving more dividends, a profit distribution, and by purchasing their own shares. As a result, fewer shares are in circulation and earnings per share rise. That is good for the share price. These prices rose by an average of 24 percent last year.”