Salary growth in Spain has been one of the hottest topics in political and economic debates over the last two years. The increase in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage and in salaries in general has been driven by upward pressure on inflation and the rise in housing rents, which has led to further cuts if possible. purchasing power of employeesS.

This increase in salaries was not limited to Spain, but occurred globally. According to the OECD’s Employment Outlook 2024 report for Spain, the real minimum wage in May 2024 was 12.8% higher than in May 2019. The minimum wage in Spain has grown above inflation, with a nominal increase of 26% since 2019. This means: reduce inflation for this salary scale, turning it into a real increase of 6.5%.

Comparing salaries between countries

However, even though salaries are gradually increasing, the 2022 consolidated data for the group of countries that make up the OECD reveal that there are countries where this is the case. salary increase countries such as Canada and the United States have increased their salaries by 26.9 percent and 26.7 percent respectively over the past two decades. France and the United Kingdom have done so by 20.8 percent and 20.1 percent respectively. Meanwhile, Italy’s average salary has fallen by 0.9 percent.

However, given that each country is subject to different economic conditions, these individual increases do not allow for the comparison of salaries across countries. To do this, it is necessary to use the average annual salary measure in OECD countries from 2022, adjusting the figures for purchasing power parity (PPP).

In this way, Average salaries make an idea closer to reality Increasing the purchasing power in different countries and eliminating distorting factors such as exchange rates and inflation.

To make this data easier to visualize, VisualCapitalist.com created a chart showing average salaries for each country, adjusted for purchasing power parity, based on data provided by the OECD.

Best salaries: in Europe and the USA

To the surprise of many, the highest average annual salary in the world is paid in a small Central European duchy: LuxembourgThe average salary is $78,310. This data confirms what the chart already indicates about the highest average hourly wage in Europe, where the Duchy of Luxembourg stands out with 47.2 euros per hour.

The United States is close behind with an average annual salary of $77,463. Third, we turn to Europe and find Switzerland among the countries with the best annual salary in the world at $72,993 per year.

While the cost of living is relatively high in these three countries, the large weight of banking and financial services in their economies means that employee salaries are among the highest in the table.

At the other pole we see countries like Mexico with an average annual salary of $16,685; Greece with $25,979; or Slovakia with $26,263, in the last three places in the table.

In contrast to the three countries with the best wages, the dominance of manufacturing, agriculture and the service sector skews the labour market towards less skilled workers and therefore lower average wages.

To find We need to go down to the lower middle region of Spain Spain’s adjusted average annual salary is $42,859, largely driven by successive SMI salary increases that have slowed the decline in purchasing power.

Our Portuguese neighbors, for example, have been unable to support themselves and have dropped to 26th place with an average salary of $31,922. Italy, whose economy is similar to ours, albeit with different nuances, is slightly above Spain with an average annual salary of $44,893.

Again, Eurostat data on average wages per hour worked in Europe follow the same wage pattern, with hourly rates slightly lower for Portugal and slightly higher for Italy.

In Europe’s major economies, Germany pays an average of $58,940 per year, while in France it pays an average of $52,764.

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Image | VisualCapitalist.com