Although it is true that salaries in Spain they have not stopped rising In recent years, the data suggests that this increase has been insufficient.
The data collected in a report of CCOO confirm one of the paradoxes that the Spanish labor market registers: while employment breaks records month after month, with more than 22 million people workingthe majority cannot reach the average salary in the country.
An average salary that almost no one earns. According to the report prepared by the CCOO Economic Cabinet, the average salary in Spain is 2,386 gross euros per month in twelve paymentsaccording to data from the EPA 2024. However, 63% of employees, some 11.64 million people, do not reach that figure on their payroll.
The trick is how the average salary is calculated and how the high salaries of a minority they pull up the stocking leaving the rest beloweven though they are the majority. Therefore, the median salary data consolidated in 2024 is more revealing: half of the workers did not reach 2,041 gross euros per month in 2024, 345 euros less than the average salary. That is the point that divides Spain into two halves.
A labor market with two speeds. According to the Salary Structure Survey 2024the most common gross annual salary in Spain was 16,520 euros, far from the 29,540 euros of the annual average. Almost three out of ten employees earn between 16,000 and 23,000 euros per year, the range where the majority of the country actually lives.
Young people who start working earn an average of 1,372 euros gross per month, well below the 2,680 euros of those who close their careers. Temporary contracts and moonlighting They explain a good part of that distance. There is also a gap between autonomies: Extremadura, the Canary Islands and Castilla-La Mancha continue to lag behind in salaries, although they are the ones that grow the most, driven by the increases in the SMI.
The increases finally reach those who earn the least. The interesting thing about the report prepared by the union is not only the diagnosis, but also the change in trend that is drawn. Between 2018 and 2024 the average salary gained 2.8% real purchasing powercompared to the 1.6% registered between 2007 and 2018. The important difference is in the lowest salary range: the 10% of workers with the lowest income have improved a real 24% since 2018, after having lost 17.8% during the previous crisis.
This change is defined by salary policies such as increase in the Minimum Interprofessional Wageset at 1,221 euros per month in 14 payments by 2026, which has raised the floor for the lowest payrolls. The decree that established the SMI itself recalls that one of its objectives is to reach the 60% of the average salaryas required by the European Social Charter.
Housing eats up the salary improvement. Earning more no longer guarantees a better life if basic goods such as rent rise faster than payroll. And in Spain it is doing it. Rental prices rose 2.5% year-on-year in June, according to data from the INE CPIand accumulates an increase of 1.4% only so far in 2026.
According to the authors of the report, rising housing prices “reduce the impact of wage increases”, especially among the lowest incomes and young people. A floor that rises more than the salary translates into less savings and a longer delay in emancipation.
Image | Unsplash (Acton Crawford)
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