Salaries unchanged despite three years of economic growth

The average salary in Catalonia has remained largely unchanged, even after three years of economic growth in the country, according to a report released on Tuesday by the renowned Business School Barcelona (EADA) and the ICSA, which specialises in investigation, consultation, and applied systems within human resources.

The report, entitled ‘The evolution of wages 2007 - 2017’, highlights how GDP in Spain as a whole has risen by an average of 3% for the last three years, most people’s wages have not been affected. In fact, the average gross salary in 2017 was 23,037 euros per annum, making workers in Catalonia the fourth best paid compared to the rest of Spain.

 “Comfortable but not content”

Due to the stagnancy in wages, the president of ICSA, Ernesto Poveda stated that “we will have people who are comfortable but not content, not implicated, and not motivated by their jobs.”

Even the wages of company directors have remained fairly stable. Indeed, the average salary for the head honchos stood at 79,097 euros, equalling a yearly increase of 0.28%.

Only middle managers seemed to have reaped the benefits of a growing economy with significant increases in pay. In 2017, the average stood at 40,435 euros a year, an increase of 2.72% compared to 2016

The report adds that, with inflation above 1%, all professional categories have lost purchasing power except for middle managers.