Average Irish worker produces €48,500 profit each year, Say no to pay freeze

Rising prices: No time for wage freeze

For every €2.50 euros of value produced by an average Irish worker, the capitalists get to keep €1.50 in profits and the worker receives just €1.

This shock statistic shows the level of exploitation of Irish workers.
With Ireland in recesion following the credit crunch and the spiralling cost of oil and food, Irish employers are demanding that working class people tighten their belts.
The employers’ organsation IBEC is insisting that wages are frozen while prices rip–ensuring an effective cut in real wages and living standards for working class people. This is necessary, they say, to maintain “competitiveness”.

But they neglect to point out that Irish enployers are making huge profits of the backs of Irish workers. Â
The Irish Times reports that the average Irish worker produces €48,500 of profit per year for the employers. These figures were produced by the Unite union to disprove the idea that profits for Irish capitalists are somehow ‘too low’ or being squeezed by unjustifiably higher wages.Â
According to the Industrial Development Agency [pdf], the average wage in Ireland was €627.24Â per week in 2007, which is just over €32,000Â per year. This figure is offered by the IDA as an instance of how competitive the Irish labour market is for foreign direct investors.

It points out that labour costs in Ireland are lower than, for example, Germany or Holland.

According to Unite: “In total terms, profits in the sector increased by over €5.6 billion in the five-year period [2000 - 2005], while total wages – despite a substantial increase in employees [over 50,000] rose by well under half”. Some industrial sectors experienced a rate of profit as high as 40%.

For every €2.50 euros of value produced by an Irish worker, the capitalists get to keep €1.50 in profits and workers receive just €1.

We’re going to hear a lot in the next few weeks and months about how we must accept cutbacks in services and sacrifices by workers, but nothing about obscene rates of profit being got off the backs of the workers of this country.

That is why we need to organise to fight any wage freeze, defend our public services and support any group of workers that fights for decent wages and conditions.