The ACTU’s submission to the upcoming Jobs & Skills Summit contains a bunch of interesting data showing how profits have boomed as Australian wages have busted.
The submission shows that Australia’s Labour Compensation as a Share of GDP has fallen to its lowest level on record:
As illustrated in Figure 3, the labour share of Australian GDP had been shrinking for decades – the intended result of measures to suppress wage growth and redistribute income to profits. However, that decline in the labour share set new records under the Coalition’s aggressive efforts to further restrain wages and boost profits. By the March quarter of 2022, total labour compensation (including wages, salaries, and superannuation contributions) accounted for just 45% of national GDP – the lowest since records have been kept…
The full text of this article is available to MacroBusiness subscribers
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
