Corporate margins have contributed more to inflation than wage increases, according to a report by Oxfam Belgium, on the occasion of International Labor Day.
This report highlights how inequalities are systematically reproduced, by analyzing how wealth produced within companies is redistributed to employees, capital owners and the community. Forty-five companies were examined. “In Belgium, profit margins contributed twice as much to inflation in 2021 as salary increases,” the NGO said. “In 2022, the contribution of corporate margins to inflation was still 25% higher than wages.”
“Corporate profit margins are the highest in 20 years”
According to Oxfam Belgium, corporate profit margins are the highest in 20 years. However, employee income will not increase in 2024 (excluding indexation). “Nonsense even though the wealth generated by employees within the largest companies active in Belgium over the last six years has increased by 45%.” These superprofits are found in the energy, agri-food, new technologies and maritime transport sectors. “On average, 73% of the profits of large companies are returned in the form of dividends to shareholders. Over the last six years, some have even paid more dividends than they made profits,” the organization also pointed out, adding that Belgium, in addition to subsidizing profitable companies, constitutes a tax haven for capital holders. This is why Oxfam Belgium calls on the next government to take ambitious measures to ensure a fair distribution of wealth, both within businesses and society. The NGO calls in particular for “a strengthening of the fight against the power of monopolies and a revision of the law on salary standards of 1996”.
