Salaries rose in Spain last year by an average of 4.6%, practically half of what prices did, since average inflation last year was 8.4% year-on-year. In this way, the average salary of Spaniards was 25,353.22 euros gross per year in 2022, but the increase they received in their payrolls did not serve to maintain their purchasing power.

Given that prices doubled, in practice the workers became poorer, since despite their salary increase they could not even maintain the same level of consumption of the previous year, according to data published this Friday by the INE. In addition, this is the average gross salary, from which the payment of taxes must be deducted. Given that the Government did not deflate personal income tax last year, workers whose salaries were raised below inflation will have paid more to the Treasury without this translating into a gain in purchasing power.

Salaries accounted for 74% of the total cost faced by companies for having workers on their payroll, while of the remaining 26% the most important item was mandatory social security contributions, which accounted for 8,055.63 euros per worker on average and represented 23.5% of the total cost.. Social Security contributions were raised last year precisely as part of the reform of the pension system and represented 4.2% more than in 2021.

Of the rest of the items that make up the cost, 491.74 euros per year per worker were allocated to social benefits, 172.81 to work-related expenses, 144.33 corresponded to severance pay and 68.32 to professional training.

In total, the total cost per worker for companies was 34,286.05 euros gross during 2022, 4.2% more than in the previous year. If the subsidies and deductions received from the Public Administrations to promote employment and professional training are deducted, the companies assumed a net cost of 34,058.83 euros per worker.

Gardeners and hoteliers earn less than the SMI

By branches of activity, the highest average wages were registered in the coking plant and oil refining, where workers earned an average gross annual average of 73,541 euros; followed by the supply of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning, with average salaries of 63,074 euros gross per year; financial services, with average payrolls of 58,916 euros gross; and the tobacco industry, with 51,737 euros.

On the contrary, building services and gardening activities were the worst paid, with an average salary of 12,788 euros gross; along with food and beverage services (hotels), with 13,386 euros gross per year; other personal services, with 14,724 euros; and social service activities without accommodation, with 15,118 euros. The first two professions are the only ones in which the average gross salary last year was below the Minimum Interprofessional Salary (SMI), which was then set at 14,000 euros gross per year.

Despite the fact that the hospitality industry is among the lowest-paid jobs, it is one of those that has registered the highest salary increase in the last year, reaching its highest level in the series that began in 2008, mainly due to the difficulties that the sector has had in finding staff, which has pushed salaries upward from their already very low position.

The average severance pay was 144.33 euros, 30% lower than in 2021, logically the sectors with the highest compensation being those in which the salaries are higher: in financial services, an average of 1,203 euros was paid to those laid off; in coke ovens and oil refining, 1,201 euros; and in real estate activities, 761 euros.

On the contrary, layoffs in air transport had an average cost of 2.28 euros; in education, 9.8 euros; in the Public Administration and Social Security, 14.7 euros, and in health activities, 16.4 euros.