GroenLinks and PvdA want to increase the minimum wage by an additional 6.5 percent

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GroenLinks and PvdA want to increase the minimum wage and the related benefits by an additional 6.5 percent. In this way, low-income people should be compensated for all price increases since January 2020. The left-wing parties want to collect the billions that this costs from companies that achieve ‘exorbitant profits’, and from shareholders.

Food bank in Rotterdam West Delfshaven.  Volunteers, the unemployed and people with a mild mental handicap are filling crates with food.  'The cabinet promised to halve poverty, but what happens?  Hundreds of thousands more people are living in poverty, while companies are making record profit after record profit,' says GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver.
Food bank in Rotterdam West Delfshaven. Volunteers, the unemployed and people with a mild mental handicap are filling crates with food. ‘The cabinet promised to halve poverty, but what happens? Hundreds of thousands more people are living in poverty, while companies are making record profit after record profit,’ says GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver. (ANP / Hans van Rhoon)

The parties will come up with their proposal on the day that a number of large companies will explain to the House of Representatives why wages are rising less quickly than profits and payments to shareholders. Ahold Delhaize, Heineken and KPN, among others, have been invited to this round table discussion, as have the employers’ organization VNO-NCW and the trade unions FNV and CNV.

The left-wing opposition parties believe that the cabinet is doing too little against what they call ‘growflation’. They point to research by Rabobank that shows that the prices paid by consumers in the store have risen faster than the purchase prices of companies. As a result, some companies make more profit. They often use it to reward shareholders, for example by buying back their own shares.

Halving poverty

‘The cabinet promised to halve poverty, but what happens? Hundreds of thousands more people are living in poverty, while companies are making record profit after record profit,’ says GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver. According to PvdA leader Attje Kuiken, the cabinet is afraid to tackle companies. ‘With this proposal we move the money from the shareholder to the stock filler.’

‘The cabinet promised to halve poverty, but what happens? ‘

Attje Kuiken, PvdA leader

The parties propose to levy a one-off tax of 50 percent next year on excess profits from 10 million euros, good for 4 billion euros in extra income. A permanent increase in the top corporate income tax rate, from 25.8 to 30 percent, should also yield an extra 3.7 billion euros on a structural basis. A tax on share buybacks should raise another 400 million euros.


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