US pre-tax earnings reach highest level since WWII as workers’ share of income shrinks

American corporations are making more money than at any point in roughly 80 years. The workers helping them do it are getting a smaller cut than ever. Pre-tax corporate earnings hit an annualized $4.8 trillion in the second quarter of 2026, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis data. That figure represents 18% of national income, a proportion not seen since the years immediately following World War II. The numbers tell a two-speed story While profits surge, employee compensation is moving in the opposite direction. The share of national income going to workers has fallen to roughly 60%, with some analyses from the New York Fed pegging the figure as low as 54.1% in early 2026. For context, workers claimed more than 65% of national income in the decades after WWII. Even as recently as early 2020, the figure stood at 57.7%. The slide from there to 54.1% in about six years is a meaningful acceleration of a trend that had been grinding along slowly for decades. Corporate profit margins reached 19.4% in Q2 2026, the widest recorded since the 1940s. How we got here Union membership has been in steady decline since the early 1980s. Fewer unions mean less collective bargaining power, whi...