(August 2016) The International Trade Union Confederation and trade unions at the G20 summit of leading industrial nations have called for world leaders to take urgent steps to boost the global economy through co-ordinated action to increase wages and their share in national income. The ITUC says that rebuilding strong labour market institutions to create quality jobs and reduce income inequality must be a priority. Read more at ITUC (EN/FR/ES).
Unions argue for increased wage share
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Workers lose out from declining wage share
An analysis by the ETUC reveals the impact of the declining wage share across Europe.If the proportion of GDP made up by wages were the same as in the early 1990s working people in the EU would have earned an extra €1764 in 2017 alone! The proportion of GDP made up by wages has been in decline since the mid-1970s. Wages made up 72% of EU GDP in 1975, and in 2017 made up less than 63%.
ETUC highlights falling wage share and rising profits
In the latest stage in its Pay Rise campaign the ETUC has published a briefing that reveals the long-term decline in wages as a share of economic output. In 1976 almost 73% of national wealth was paid in wages to working people. Today the figures is nearly 10 percentage points less – with wages making up about 63% of national wealth. The ETUC argues that increases in productivity have not been equitably shared, resulting in the growing proportion of economic output going to profits. The briefing also includes charts showing that these increased profits are flowing to shareholders while