Europe is facing a purchasing power crisis of unprecedented proportions. In 2022, inflation averaged 9.6% in member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and 9.2% in the European Union (EU), according to Eurostat. In the same timeframe, however, wages rose by only 4.4% in the EU, meaning that real wages have dropped by 2.4% in Europe; in Italy, real wages are now 12% below what they were in 2008. This is a global trend: The International Labour Organization (ILO) reported that real wages fell (by 0.9%) in 2022 for the first time in this century. What's more, inequalities are set to rise as the most precarious members of society spend a larger share of their incomes on essential goods and services such as energy, food and mobility – the prices of which have risen even faster than other components of household budgets.

The decline of trade unions, globalization and the threat of offshoring, the development of insecure employment (including on work platforms) all help to explain why, everywhere, labor's share as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) has been declining since the 1980s. In OECD countries, for example, it fell from 66.1% to 61.7% between 1990 and 2009.

At the same time, there is a growing feeling that wages do not reflect the true value of the work provided. Beyond the extreme case of people offering their time for free within the household or the community (most of them women), there is a general feeling of unease: The most socially useful professions falling in the category of "care" work or the upkeep of communal areas, are the least valued.

In a study of the jobs that became "essential" during the Covid-19 pandemic, the ILO found that "essential workers" (most often female workers) earned, on average, 26% less than others and that at least a third of this gap cannot be explained by differences in qualifications. In other words, workers who provide vital services to society in sectors such as food production and retailing, healthcare, cleaning and sanitation, and transport are being underpaid.

This should hardly come as a surprise: While labor's true contribution to general well-being cannot be limited to monetary value added, workers' bargaining power mainly depends on the price paid by the end consumer of the good or service. Yet those benefiting from the services provided by care workers are unwilling or unable to pay more. This is yet another reason for the current malaise: Because of how the value of work is currently determined in the labor market, its compensation is worse when responding to the needs of low-income earners rather than the demand expressed by wealthier households.

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