Workers wait while corporate profits soar - pay increases needed

• 2024 pay increases must encompass catch up with cost of living

Labour workers’ rights spokesperson Marie Sherlock has backed ICTU’s call for private sector pay increases of between 4% to 6%.

Senator Sherlock said:

“The reality is that while many private sector workers took real wages cuts in the face of enormous hikes in the cost of living in 2022 and 2023, net corporate profitability soared during by 24% in 2022 according to the CSO’s national accounts and there does not appear to have been any collapse in this in 2023.

"It’s crucial to add that industry only accounts for just over half of all corporate profitability- other services (+87%) and the retail and wholesale sector (+8%) have also seen very handsome increases in their profitability.

"There will be a predictable response from some quarters about the pressures that some businesses are currently facing but it is worth highlighting that many businesses were well looked after by the range of pandemic Government supports that long after after the height of the pandemic.

"The reality is that it should not be worth being in business if an employer cannot afford to pay their workers a decent wage. The 4% to 6% guidance from ICTU is only reflecting a catch up in the day to day costs of living."