The average salary in 2023 was 2,273 euros gross per month, a historic maximum which it reached after increasing by 154.2 euros compared to 2022, or 7.3% more in its highest rate of advancement. high since 2008. The median (the one located in the middle of the table which classifies the salary categories from the lowest salaries to the highest salaries) amounts to 1,935 euros after having increased by 132.7 euros (7.4%) over the year and almost 300 euros since 2018, which coincides with the start of the revaluation of the Interprofessional Minimum Salary (SMI). The good news of the general data of the salary x-ray presented this Friday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) hides other statements, such as the one which indicates that almost 5.5 million workers earned less than 1,534.7 gross euros, of which 1.8 million did not reach 1,000 euros.
In 2023, Spain had 18,000,200 employees, which establishes 1.80 million per decile in the statistical analysis. The largest group is the one that brings together 40% of employees who are in the intermediate deciles (around 7,200,100 people) whose salaries were between 1,534.7 and 2,548.2 euros. An additional 30% are those which define the high remuneration bracket (last three deciles), i.e. a total of 5,400,100 employees with a gross monthly salary of 2,548.2 euros or more. And the remaining 30% (another 5,400,100) were in the low-wage zone (first three deciles) and earned less than 1,534.7 euros.
Dissecting the data allows us to go further to verify, for example, that of the 5,400,100 employees with the lowest salaries, 1.8 million did not reach 1,000 gross per month in their main job. To avoid the inconsistency of the data with the SMI, which in 2023 amounted to 1,080 euros in 14 payments, it should be noted that the INE – via the Labor Force Survey (EPA) – calculates the salary monthly by dividing the total received in the year by 12 and it prorates payments that do not have a monthly periodicity, such as extraordinary payments.
Comparing by gender, the average salary of women (2,063.2 euros) was 400 euros lower than that of men (2,467.9 euros), who had a greater relative concentration in high salaries. Concretely, 34% of them earned 2,548.2 euros or more in 2023, compared to 25.7% of female workers. Salary inequalities are confirmed low wages where they are dominate: 39.7% had a salary below 1,534.7 euros, compared to 21% of men.
In this sense, Statistics reminds us that in the analysis of salaries associated with the modalities of a given characteristic (such as men and women), these can be determined by other underlying variables, such as seniority in employment or type of working day, level of training, among others, which are not equally distributed in each group.
Depending on age, the average gross salary varied between 1,387.4 euros, received on average by those under 25, and 2,522.2 euros for employees aged 45 to 54.
It is the oldest workers who have a greater relative weight in the highest salaries because they have a higher proportion of permanent contracts, more seniority and more professional experience. On the other hand, young people, who on the contrary concentrate the lowest salaries: more part-time work, temporary contracts and less seniority.
On average, employees on permanent contracts received an average monthly salary of 2,363.2 euros while those on fixed-term contracts received 1,832.3 euros. The differences are also determined by the type of day. 34.9% of full-time employees earned at least 2,548.2 euros per month and 20% received less than 1,534.7. Conversely, 88.9% of part-time employees earned less than 1,534.7 euros and only 1% had a salary of at least 2,548.2 euros.
Wages of 1,534.7 euros or less were concentrated in household activities as employers of domestic staff (78.4%) and in the agriculture, livestock, forestry and fishing sector (61.8%). The branches of activity of Supply of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning (66.6%), Financial and insurance activities (66.4%) and Education (60.1%) were those which had the greatest relative weight in salaries of 2,548.2 or more.
The detail of the INE shows the same dynamics as other statistics on wages and income. The lowest average salaries in 2023 corresponded to the Activities of households employing domestic staff (1,014.5 euros), Home (1,455.9) and Agriculture, livestock, forestry and fishing (1,561.6) and sets the highest in the supply of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning (4,067.2 euros), financial and insurance activities ( 3,542.9) and public administration and defense Compulsory social security (2,948.9).
THE gap between the public and private sectors This is also obvious. The average gross monthly salary for the main job of employees in the public sector was 3,026.1 euros (199.9 more than in 2022) and in the private sector, 2,091 euros (139.9 more) .
