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Corporate Profits and Employee Compensation as Shares of U.S. National Income
Quarterly at annual rates, % of national income
Compensation of employees · Continuation · the recent trend, flattening · 1 year
Corporate profits · Continuation · the recent trend, flattening · 1 year
Dashed: the projection from the latest reading. Shaded: the range about two in three outcomes land in. A projection, not a promise.
Palanor calculation from BEA national accounts via FRED: COE and CPROFIT (with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments) divided by national income (NICUR). The two panels have their own scales. The rest of national income is proprietors’ and rental income, net interest and production taxes.
How America’s national income is split between the people who work for pay and corporate profits. The labor share peaked around 1980 and has drifted lower since; the profit share rose to record levels after 2010.
What this chart reads
- US Compensation of Employees · % of National Incomeas “Compensation of employees”behindlatest 2026-04-01
- US Corporate Profits · % of National Incomeas “Corporate profits”behindlatest 2026-04-01
Sources
US Compensation of Employees · % of National Income. Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, NIPA Table 1.12 (national income by type of income), via FRED: NICUR, COE, CPROFIT. Public domain. Palanor calculation in src/lib/sovereign/us-fiscal.ts.
US Corporate Profits · % of National Income. Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, NIPA Table 1.12 (national income by type of income), via FRED: NICUR, COE, CPROFIT. Public domain. Palanor calculation in src/lib/sovereign/us-fiscal.ts.
Charts are drawn from Palanor's signal library and recomputed from source data on every view. Transformations (changes, indexing, year-on-year rates) are Palanor's.