The median salary rises to 1,814 euros and 1.71 million workers earn less than 955.5 euros per month

The average monthly salary, in gross terms, rose 2% in 2022, to 2,128.4 euros, its highest figure since the series began in 2006, according to the salary decile prepared by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). based on data from the Active Population Survey (EPA).

It is the sixth consecutive year in which the average salary has increased after it fell in 2016 for the first time in ten years. The increase in 2022 has moderated compared to that experienced in 2021, when it rose 2.4%.

According to Statistics data, 40% of employees (6.8 million employees) earned between 1,440.1 and 2,373.7 euros gross per month in 2022, while 30% (5.14 million people) earned remunerations of at least 2,373.7 euros per month and the remaining 30% (another 5.14 million employees) received a salary of less than 1,440 euros per month.

Among those 5.14 million employees who received the lowest salaries, more than 3.4 million earned less than 1,252.7 euros gross per month in their main job, while 1.7 million earned less than 955.55 euros . Likewise, 1.7 million earned more than 3,629.7 euros gross per month.

To prepare this statistic, the INE organizes all employees - 17,141,600 people last year - 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 the total number of workers into two equal parts, those with a higher salary and those with a lower salary, stood at 1,814 gross euros per month in 2022, 3.2% more than in 2021 (56.6 euros more). This median salary is almost 315 euros lower than the average salary in 2022 (2,128.4 euros).

WOMEN, YOUNG PEOPLE AND TEMPORARY EMPLOYEES CONCENTRATE THE LOWEST WAGES

Depending on the type of working day, 34.9% of full-time employees earned at least 2,373.7 euros per month in 2022 and 20.2% earned less than 1,440.1 euros. On the contrary, 87.4% of part-time employees earned less than 1,440.1 euros per month and only 1.6% earned 2,373.7 euros or more.

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 salaries.

Among young people under 25 years of age, the average gross salary reached 1,315.4 euros per month in 2022, a figure that rises to 2,381.2 euros per month among employees who are 55 years of age or older. Almost half of the young people, 47.3%, earned less than 1,252.7 euros per month and three out of ten, 29.2%, earned less than 955.55 euros.

Among women, four out of ten received a salary of less than 1,440.1 euros per month, compared to one out of every five men. The percentage of men who earned 2,373.7 euros or more per month was 32.7%, in contrast to 27.2% of women. Overall, the average salary for women in 2022 stood at 1,941.7 euros per month, compared to the 2,303.5 euros received by men.

Among the reasons that explain this wage difference by sex, the INE places the fact that women work in a greater proportion than men on part-time days, with temporary contracts and in lower-paid branches of activity.

There is also a salary gap depending on the type of contract. Thus, the average monthly salary of permanent workers (2,247.3 euros in 2022) exceeds that of temporary workers (1,683.9 euros). Among the factors that explain this wage inequality between temporary and permanent workers is the higher educational level of permanent contracts and the greater weight of temporary contracts in branches of activity with a seasonal nature and lower remunerations.

By level of training, the average salary of employees with lower secondary education (1,465.5 euros per month) is significantly lower than that of those with higher education (2,647.8 euros).

THE FINANCIAL AND ENERGY SECTORS, THOSE THAT PAY THE BEST

The lowest salaries were concentrated in 2022 in household activities such as employers of domestic staff (981 euros), hospitality (1,389.9 euros) and agriculture, livestock, forestry and fishing (1,477.3 euros). This is partly due to the higher proportion of part-time jobs and temporary employment in these sectors.

On the contrary, the highest remunerations occurred in the activities of electricity and gas supply (3,498 euros per month), in financial and insurance activities (3,393.7 euros on average per month) and in information and communications ( 2,940.6 euros).

PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYEES CHARGE 878 EUROS MORE PER MONTH

According to this statistic, public sector workers (including public companies) had an average gross monthly salary of 2,835.4 euros per month, compared to 1,957.6 euros for private sector workers.

This greater concentration of high salaries in the public sector is due to the greater percentage of employees with higher education, the type of occupation performed, the lower weight of part-time work and greater seniority.

Analyzing the data by region, those that presented the highest average salaries in 2022 were the Basque Country (2,545.8 euros), Madrid (2,381.3 euros) and the Balearic Islands (2,311.7 euros), while Extremadura (1,845.3 euros), the Canary Islands (1,869.3 euros) and Murcia (1,876.4 euros) recorded the lowest.