Salary is an important part of the workplace and, like a domino effect, determines other aspects of the economy and the quality of life of those living in a country. The National Institute of Statistics (INE) has published the consolidated data of the Salary Structure Survey 2022 in Spain, which leaves a snapshot of the salary landscape in Spain.

Average salary may distort the pictureA common statistical source when talking about salaries is to take the average salary as a reference value. This can distort the country’s salary reality, as the INE report points out, because the average salary is calculated by averaging between the lowest and highest salaries.

“A feature of wage distribution functions is that there are many more workers at the lower values ​​than at the higher wages. This results in the average wage being higher than both the median wage and the most frequent wage.” Average annual profits per worker in 2022 were €26,948.87 gross, 4.1% higher than the previous year.

Modal salary is the salary that most employees earnThe modal salary or most common salary is the salary most repeated in the responses received by INE, therefore the salary closest to the salary reality of the majority of the active population.

According to the INE, the most common salary in 2022 was around €14,586.44 and was declared by 4.2% of employees, which was percentage-wise linked to an annual gross salary of €16,495.84. This is around €3,917 less than in 2021, when the most common salary was set at €18,502.97.

Only 4.1% of respondents reported that their salary was €18,494.32 in 2022. In total, 20.5% of employees had an annual profit of between €14,000 and €19,000 in 2022.

The most common salaries in Spain in 2022. Source: INE

“The SMI effect“. The published data for 2022 already show the effects of the first increases in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI) implemented in 2021. This increase took the salaries for that year above the annual 13,300 euros set for that year.

The data also reveals that 17% of payrolls in 2022 fall below the figure set by the SMI for that year. This percentage corresponds to part-time workers because legislation does not allow companies to pay below the SMI under Article 27 of the Labor Act.

Gender gap affects lowest wagesThe data shows a striking difference in wages between men and women. This is particularly evident in salary ranges below €15,000, with 30% of women earning less than this in 2022.

Salary distribution by gender. Source: INE

As we noted in the previous section, this trend reveals that part-time contracts and lower wage income are more common among women.

The average salary gap between men and women was set at 20.6%, where men received an average gross annual salary of €29,382 compared to the average of €24,359 received by women.

Salary varies by locationSalary compensation varies by community, with the Basque Country (€32,314 per year on average) having the best average salary, and Extremadura (€21,923) having the worst average salary. Madrid (€31,231), Navarra (€29,189) and Catalonia (€28,775) are next in line.

This difference in salaries between communities is largely influenced by the sectors in which they are concentrated. Data collected by INE show that industries in the energy supply sector have an average gross salary of €55,471 per year, while the finance sector has a gross salary of €47,239. This explains the differences in salaries in the communities with the highest concentration of such companies.

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Picture | Unsplash (Fons Heijnsbroek)