The International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) ‘Global Wage Report 2012/13: Wages and Equitable Growth’ records the fact that workers get a thinner slice of pie and that the bigger slice is always for capital. This is the golden rule. Those with the gold makes the rules. Workers globally continue to be extremely exploited and capital continues to exact greater profits for the minority whilst forever finding new ways to justify this heinous system. Labor’s declining share in income means labor is paid less for its necessary labor time, and less payment for necessary labor time means labor is pressed down or squeezed out more for more profit by capital, which is labor’s increased hardship, deprivation, and suffering.
In 16 developed economies, the average labor share dropped from 75 percent of national income in the mid-1970s to 65 percent in the years just before the economic crisis, and in 16 developing and emerging countries, it decreased from 62 percent of GDP in the early 1990s to 58 percent just before the crisis. Between 1999 and 2011, the report tells, average labor productivity in developed economies increased more than twice as much as average wages. In a number of larger economies including the US, Germany and Japan wage growth lagged behind productivity growth.
Large numbers of employees are getting lower wages, reasons include reduced working hours and less overtime. Companies in several countries have reduced employees’ working time: three or four-day weeks have replaced five-day week, daily hours have been reduced, and even plants have been shut down for weeks or months. Governments preach that companies need breathing space – scope for making profit – in times of crisis and be permitted to adopt new working practices and wage rates. A decline in labour costs is frequently advocated as a means of restoring economic growth and promoting employment yet in developed economies, according to the report, unemployment rose from less than 6 percent to more than 8 percent of the labor force.
The reality is to fill the pockets of investors. The ILO report says "In advanced economies, profits of non-financial corporations have increasingly been allocated to pay dividends, which accounted for 35 percent of profits in 2007 and increased pressure on companies to reduce the share of value added going to labor compensation." In Sweden a large part of the increased surplus of corporations went into boosting the dividends to shareholders. In France, total dividends increased from 4 percent of the total wage bill in the early 1980s to 13 percent in 2008. In the US, three-quarters of the increase in gross operating surplus went into the payment of dividends.
In 16 developed economies, the average labor share dropped from 75 percent of national income in the mid-1970s to 65 percent in the years just before the economic crisis, and in 16 developing and emerging countries, it decreased from 62 percent of GDP in the early 1990s to 58 percent just before the crisis. Between 1999 and 2011, the report tells, average labor productivity in developed economies increased more than twice as much as average wages. In a number of larger economies including the US, Germany and Japan wage growth lagged behind productivity growth.
Large numbers of employees are getting lower wages, reasons include reduced working hours and less overtime. Companies in several countries have reduced employees’ working time: three or four-day weeks have replaced five-day week, daily hours have been reduced, and even plants have been shut down for weeks or months. Governments preach that companies need breathing space – scope for making profit – in times of crisis and be permitted to adopt new working practices and wage rates. A decline in labour costs is frequently advocated as a means of restoring economic growth and promoting employment yet in developed economies, according to the report, unemployment rose from less than 6 percent to more than 8 percent of the labor force.
The reality is to fill the pockets of investors. The ILO report says "In advanced economies, profits of non-financial corporations have increasingly been allocated to pay dividends, which accounted for 35 percent of profits in 2007 and increased pressure on companies to reduce the share of value added going to labor compensation." In Sweden a large part of the increased surplus of corporations went into boosting the dividends to shareholders. In France, total dividends increased from 4 percent of the total wage bill in the early 1980s to 13 percent in 2008. In the US, three-quarters of the increase in gross operating surplus went into the payment of dividends.
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