More than 99.9% of employees are poor. More than 70% of employees retire poor and have to depend on social security and other transfer programs to survive.

The big question is why would a person work for 40 years, having a constant salary every month, and still retire poor? It is ridiculous.

I have friends who held big positions in the public and even private sector but they are still poor at retirement. These were not just junior employees but senior officers earning hundreds of thousands.

After studying the situation for long, I figured out why almost all employees end up poor.

How much companies pay their employees

I did a study that showed that companies only spend around 5% of their gross profit on salaries.

Despite the employees working hard to make the profit for the business, they only get 5% of what is made by subtracting the total sales over the total cost of sales.

The bigger problem is that few people at the top earn more than the majority at the bottom. The CEO, Vice Presidents, COO, CFO, etc. take almost everything as the junior officers take home nothing.

This means that after subtracting the expenses (Which might be catered for by the additional income from the non-core business), shareholders get everything else.

Individuals behind the corporation

Every corporation in the private sector is owned by people. These people are called shareholders. These are the people who get everything. Employees work for them.

Shareholders never show up to work. They have understood the secret of success. They leverage the effort and experience of other people to succeed.

The work of shareholders is to travel the world and work only when they want to. They do not have to work. At the end of the financial year, they take home millions in dividends and still retain their shareholding.

Even if they do not get dividends, profits that are plowed back into the business grow the business and make their shares more valuable.

Why not become a shareholder? All they do is enjoy life and smile to the bank.

Going up the corporate ladder?

As we grow up, our teachers and parents tell us to work hard and get good grades so that we can get a good job. They then advise us to work hard, specialize to get promoted.

Everyone in the organization wants to become the CEO. However, only one person can be the CEO at any particular time. This means that many never get to become CEOs. They chase what they never achieve.

Why not start a company of your own and become a CEO right away? Of course, you have to hustle your way up but it is all worth the effort.

If the probability of becoming a CEO in the corporate world is one in every 10,000, it is not worth aiming to become one. That is like gambling.

Just become one right away and build your empire. In your empire, no one can fire you or control your income.

The fallacy of promotion

Employees spend their lives chasing promotions. Assuming you are a junior officer in a company. You are told to work for 3-5 years diligently to get promoted. After 5 years, your salary increases by 500 dollars. Are the 500 dollars worth the 5 years of diligence?

You often see go-slows and strikes on the streets of workers asking for a pay rise or allowances. After a week on the streets, each receives a 20 dollars allowance package and they go back to work. Is this worth the time and effort?

This life strategy is a big fallacy of the majority.

Why lose control?

Why leave your income in the hands of people who have no concern over your needs? Your employer only cares about your output and not your welfare. He wants to pay you as little as possible to increase his revenue.

This means that employers are pursuing their interests, not yours. If that is true, why do you allow them to determine what you earn? Your pay rise is at their mercy. They decide what you earn even without considering the increase in your bills.

To be successful, you have to take control of your income.

10 reasons why employees are poor

Here are 10 reasons why 99.9% of employees are poor.

 1. They do not own any system

As we pointed out in this post (How to succeed in life), success principles have not changed over the years. The factors of success may change but the principles are the same.

In the hunting and gathering age, the chiefs owned the big titles and the villages and people hunted for them. In the agrarian age, those who owned the plantations became successful while the rest remained poor.

In the industrial age, those who owned the factories made fortunes while everybody else struggled through life. In the information age, those who own timely and relevant information get rich.

This means that ownership is the principle of success. This is why the most successful people are business owners.

Employees become poor because despite working for a money-making system, they do not own it. They are like the people who hunted for the chiefs or the peasants who worked in farms.

Own something today. Even if you do not quit your job, start a side hustle and let others work for you. In all you do, make sure you own a money-making system.