The average salary in Spain rises 1.6% to 24,396 euros in 2019

Spaniards had an average gross salary of 24,396 euros in 2019, 1.6% more than the previous year. However, the most charged salary is lowered to 18,490 euros, according to the Annual Survey of Labor Structure released yesterday by the INE. This statistic is what, according to the recommendations of the experts consulted by the Ministry of Labor, will be used to determine the Minimum Interprofessional Salary (SMI) for future years, although with some reductions; Specifically, the net profit will be used, not the gross profit, and neither overtime nor the salary in kind of the average salary determined by the INE will be taken into account.

Regarding the Minimum Interprofessional Salary (12,600 euros in 2019), 18.2% of all workers had a salary equal to or less than the SMI However, it continues to have a strong gender bias, the percentage rises to 25.7% of women and is reduced to 11.1% of men. The INE highlights that this situation is influenced by the high feminization of part-time. If, on the contrary, the highest salaries are taken into account (5 times the SMI (more than 63,000 euros) or above, 4.1% of the total number of workers were in that range, for only half of the women, 2.1% of all female workers.

The inequality reflected in the Salary Structure Survey in all the parameters analyzed. On average, the average earnings for men were €26,934 and for women €21,682. Therefore, as reflected by the INE, the average annual salary for women represented 80.5% of that for men. However, the difference is reduced if similar jobs are considered (same occupation, type of contract, type of working day, etc.).

The Survey completes the description of female wage inequality with the proportion of workers with low earnings (salaried workers whose earnings are below two-thirds of the median earnings, which was 15% two years ago. Among these workers, 64% were women.In this case, the higher percentage of part-time women should also be taken into account.

The activity with the highest remuneration was Supply of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning (52,162 euros on average), followed by financial activities (44,302 euros) and communication and information (34,641). On the other hand, hospitality wages, with 14,561 euros, had the lowest average earnings, administrative activities (17,107 euros) and artistic activities (18,088 euros).