Spain’s Average Salary in 2010 Stood at €22,790.20
June 28th, 2012
The highest wages were in the Basque Country, Madrid and Catalonia, while the lowest were recorded in the Canary Islands, Extremadura and Galicia.
In Spain the annual average gross wage in 2010 was €22,790.20 compared with an average of €53,431.33 earned by directors and managers, which is an increase of 134.4% on the gross average wage, according to the National Statistics Institute’s Annual Survey of Wage Structure, compiled from data for 2010.
However, despite the average figure, the Institute specifies that the most common salary was actually €16,489.90 per year. The statistical agency explains this difference in the fact that only very few workers were paid very high wages, but that these “greatly influenced the average wage”.
Also above the Spanish average for that year stood the salaries of technicians, professionals and protection and security service workers, while the rest of the occupations were remunerated with below-average wages, the lowest being those of unqualified service workers.
As for the wage gap between men and women, Cinco Dias reported that the gap stood at 13.7%, as the men earned an average of €25,479.74 per year, compared with the €19,735.22 earned by women.
By region, the highest wages were found to be in the Basque Country, with an average annual gross income of €26,593.70, followed by Madrid (€25,988.95) and Catalonia (€24,449.19). The lowest average wages were recorded in the Canary Islands, Extremadura and Galicia (with €19,315.56, €19,480.55 and €20,241.99, respectively).
The economic activity that had the highest corresponding annual salary was in the supply of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning, with an average of €48,803.35. Financial and insurance activities followed, with €41,638.70 average salary annually.
By contrast, the lowest average wages corresponded to hotel/catering services, with €14,629.55, and administrative and auxiliary services, with €15,682.32, amounts 35.8% and 31.1% lower than the average.
By nationality
Spanish workers and those belonging to the European Union had the highest annual average wages in 2010, with €23,335.39 and €18,639.34, respectively. All groups of workers with other than Spanish nationalities earned less than average wages, especially Latin Americans, who had the lowest wage at €14,649.79.
By Age
Worth noting was that in 2010 there was a positive relationship between the age of workers and their wage bracket, in that the oldest workers, those who had been working in the company the longest, and those with the most experience in the position received the highest remunerations.
The average annual salary in 2010 for workers of 20 to 25 years of age was €13,349.15, compared with €28,234.60 for workers of 55 to 59 years of age.
