earnings vs net income

earnings and net income both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
earnings	Yes	No	No	No
net income	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, earnings and net income are synonyms defined as:

earnings and net income: the excess of revenues over outlays in a given period of time (including depreciation and other non-cash expenses)

Other synonyms of earnings include lucre, net, net profit, profit, profits.

earnings (noun)	net income (noun)
something that remunerates	the excess of revenues over outlays in a given period of time (including depreciation and other non-cash expenses)
the excess of revenues over outlays in a given period of time (including depreciation and other non-cash expenses)