One of The AFR’s resident business shills, Ronald Mizen, argues that record profits being made by mining companies in recent years has skewed the debate about wages versus profits.
Mizen claims that when mining is removed from total profits, non-mining profits have fallen from around 22% of total factor income in the early-2000s to around 18% in 2022, undermining suggestions by unions that wages are not keeping up with profits:
Gianni La Cava, research director at the e61 Institute and 20-year research veteran of the Reserve Bank, suggested simplistic comparisons of wages versus profits were unhelpful to a serious debate.
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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.
