There are numbers you watch. Then there are numbers that watch you back.

The Aiq, or Arbeidsinkomensquote, falls into the second category. This unassuming indicator tracks the share of income that flows to workers, rather than to capital, in the market economy. It's not a trending hashtag. It won’t open your keynote. But it tells a story that every entrepreneur, policymaker, and ethical capitalist should learn by heart.

Let me walk you through it.

From 81.4% to 69.9%: The Long Slide of Labor's Voice

Back in 1995, Dutch workers, employees and self-employed alike, took home 81.4% of all earned income in the market sector. That means: out of every euro earned by the productive economy (excluding government, real estate, mining, finance, and such), more than 8 dimes flowed into the hands of those who put in human effort.

Fast-forward to 2024, and that number has shrunk to 69.9%.

That’s not a blip. That’s a reconfiguration of the social contract.

Imagine a table where ten people produce a feast together. In 1995, they’d split eight full plates among themselves. Today, only seven of those plates are shared; the rest are quietly stacked in a corner, marked “profits.”

Yes, 2024 saw a +0.1% uptick in the labor share, mostly because wages grew slightly faster than corporate profits. But let’s not fool ourselves: that’s weather. The climate is erosion.

What Is Aiq, Really?

Aiq is not just a metric. It’s a moral ledger.

It tells us who participates in wealth creation and who benefits from it. It combines:

• Labor income (wages + self-employed income)
• Operating profits (business surpluses)

Then it asks: How much of the total pie goes to labor?

If that number shrinks, it doesn’t automatically mean exploitation, but it often signals imbalance. It might reflect automation, capital accumulation, outsourcing, or rentier economics. But it always, always reflects a shift in power.

And when power shifts invisibly, risk accumulates silently.

Which Sectors Gave More to Labor?

Let’s look beneath the national average. Because averages conceal tension zones.

Here’s where labor’s share rose in 2024:

• Energy companies: from 37.2% to 51.7%
• Industry: up to 62.6%
• Agriculture, forestry, fishing: a modest rise to 77.1%
• Business rentals and support: up slightly to 71.2%

Energy companies are an eye-opener. Their profits collapsed due to lower prices, but they kept paying workers well, hence the labor share surged. That’s not generosity; it’s a rare alignment of commercial compression and social compensation.

Who Took More for Capital?

Meanwhile, labor’s share dropped in sectors like:

• Water and waste management: fell hard, from 71.6% to 65.6%
• Construction: from 77.7% to 75.8%
• Specialist business services: down to 74.9%
• Hospitality: down from 84.7% to 82.9%

In waste management, profits ballooned by €4.4 billion, while labor income crawled up by just €0.2 billion. That’s an Aiq that doesn’t just fall, it gets buried.

These are not "bad guys." They are signals. Every sector dances to its own structural rhythm. Some optimize margins through machines. Others squeeze costs to stay afloat. But in all of them, we must ask: Is the value of human work still reflected in its reward?

The Retail Puzzle: Unequal Within the Equal

Even within a single sector—trade—the story fractures:

Wholesale has become a capital-heavy, margin-thin game. Retail still leans on humans. And yet, all three have seen a decline. From 1995 to 2024, retail labor share dropped 13.8 percentage points.

This is not a debate between robots and humans. It’s a question of how we value human contribution within increasingly efficient ecosystems.

Insight, Not Outrage

The decline in Aiq isn’t a crime. But it is a clue. A clue that:

• Efficiency may be bypassing equity.
• Profit may be concentrating without scrutiny.
• And human capital may be doing the work, without seeing the rewards.

For entrepreneurs, this should not trigger guilt, it should trigger governance. If your business is gaining profit while the labor share declines, ask: Is this sustainable? Is it just? Is it smart?

Because what’s taken silently often gets answered loudly, through strikes, disengagement, burnout, or societal distrust.

Final Thought: The Table Must Be Re-Set

If entrepreneurship is the engine of the market economy, labor is its traction.

You cannot scale a business on spreadsheets alone. Behind every margin lies a mechanic, a mind, or a moment of service. The Aiq reminds us that when we build wealth, we must also share its direction, not just its leftovers.

Let this +0.1% rise be a pause, not a pat on the back.

The real challenge isn’t tweaking indicators, it’s restoring alignment between who works and who wins.