Salaries in the Canary Islands rise 1.4% but are still the second lowest in Spain

The average monthly salary in the Canary Islands, in gross terms, rose by 1.4% in 2020 to 1,775 euros, the highest it has ever been at, even though it is the second lowest in Spain, according to data prepared by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) based on data from the Labour Force Survey.

Nationally, the average monthly salary increased by 2.8% last year, to 2,038 euros. It is the fourth consecutive year in which the average salary has increased after it fell in 2016 for the first time in ten years. The 2020 national increase has exceeded that experienced in 2019, when it rose by almost 2%.

The INE specifies that in the estimation of the monthly salary for 2020, the income from temporary employment regulation files (ERTE) has been taken into account in cases in which employees were in this situation.

According to Statistics data, 40% of wage earners (6.44 million people) earned between 1,336 and 2,295 euros gross per month in 2020, while 30% (4.8 million people) had salaries of at least 2,295 euros per month, and the remaining 30% (another 4.8 million employees) received a salary of less than 1,336 euros per month.

Among those 4.8 million employees who received the lowest salaries, more than 3.2 million earned less than 1,134 euros gross per month in their main job, while 1.6 million earned less than 820 euros.

To compile this statistic, the INE puts all wage earners in order, which was 16,103,800 people last year in Spain, according to the amount of the monthly salary received and divides them into 10 equal groups, with 10% of the workers in each group.

As a result, the median salary, which divides all workers into two equal parts, those with a higher salary and those with a lower salary, stood in 2020 at 1,706 euros gross per month, 1.3% more than in 2019 (22.1 euros more). This median salary is 332 euros lower than the average salary for 2020 (2,038 euros).

WOMEN, YOUNG PEOPLE AND PART-TIMERS HAVE THE LOWEST WAGES:
Based on the type of working day, 35% of full-time employees earned at least 2,295 euros per month in 2020, and 19.9% ​​received less than 1,336 euros. On the contrary, 87.1% of part-time employees earned less than 1,336 euros per month and only 1.7% earned 2,295 euros or more.

The average gross salary of full-time workers reached 2,258 euros per month in 2020, almost three times more than part-time employees (800.30 euros), although in these differences the gap in hours worked must be taken into account between both groups.

According to INE data, women, young people, people with a lower level of training, workers with less seniority in companies and those hired temporarily have the lowest wages.

In women, almost four in ten received a salary of less than 1,336 euros per month, compared to one in five men. Among young people under 25 years of age, the percentage that earns less than 1,336 euros per month reaches 61%, a figure that drops to 24.6% among wage earners who are 55 years of age or older. Overall, the average gross salary of young people was 1,207 euros per month in 2020, almost half that of those over 55 years of age (2,361 euros).

The average female salary stood at 1,852 euros per month in 2020, above the 1,773 euros in 2019, while the average salary for men increased in 2020 to 2,210 euros per month. In this way, the average male salary is 19.3% higher than that of women, a difference that has been reduced by three points compared to 2019, when this gap was 22.5%.

One of the reasons that, according to Statistics, explain the salary differences by sex is that women work in a higher proportion than men in part-time jobs, with temporary contracts, and in lower-paid branches of activity.

THE BEST AND WORST PAYING SECTORS:
The lowest wages in 2020 WERE in the hospitality industry (68.1% of staff below 1,336 euros) and household activities as employers of domestic staff (67.4%). According to the INE, this is due in part to the higher proportion of part-time jobs and temporary employment in these sectors.

On the contrary, the highest salaries were in financial and insurance activities, where 64.8% received salaries above 2,295 euros, followed by Education (64.4%) and Public Administration (61.4%).

In euros, the lowest average wages in 2020 were in household activities as employers of domestic staff (997 euros gross per month), in hospitality (1,119 euros) and in agriculture (1,373 euros). The highest corresponded to financial and insurance activities (3,152 euros gross per month), electricity supply (3,034 euros) and information and communications (2,809 euros).

EMPLOYEES IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR EARN 58% MORE:
The INE also indicates that 63.7% of public sector workers had a gross monthly salary of at least 2,295 euros in 2020, a percentage that drops to 21.2% in the case of the private sector.

Statistics underline that this higher concentration of high wages in the public sector is due to the higher percentage of wage earners with higher education, the type of occupation carried out, the lower weight of part-time work and the greater seniority.

Thus, the average gross salary in the public sector reached 2,884 euros per month last year, compared to 1,818 euros in the private sector. The former has increased by 4.5% compared to 2019, while the average salary in the private sector grew at a much lower rate, 1.2%. In comparison, public employees earn on average 58.6% more than salaried employees in the private sector.

Analyzing the data by regions, those with the highest average salaries in 2020 were Madrid (2,350 euros), the Basque Country (2,278 euros) and Navarra (2,209 euros), while Extremadura (1,760 euros), the Canary Islands (1,775 euros) and Andalusia (1,737.3 euros) registered the lowest.