Almost three out of ten workers who live in rental housing fall into poverty after paying for it, according to Oxfam

BarcelonaIn Catalonia, "working is not enough" for 28.3% of employed people who live in rented accommodation, and who see how, after paying the monthly rent, they fall below the poverty line. Faced with the serious housing crisis, Oxfam Intermón confirms that the costs of having a place to live aggravate in-work poverty, in a study published this Tuesday.

"Access to housing is, currently, one of the main cornerstones of inequality," points out the non-profit organization, which puts numbers to a perception discussed in the country's bars and squares based on 2024 data, the latest available. In Catalonia, 7.9% of workers are poor even before paying for housing, an essential good for a dignified life. Once this expense is accounted for, the percentage rises to 12.9%. However, the possibilities of being able to overcome this payment, or falling below the poverty line along the way, are heavily conditioned by the housing tenure regime, that is, whether it is owned or rented.

Two-thirds of households in Catalonia live in owner-occupied housing, while practically all the rest are rented. The difference between poor workers in each of the groups is already evident before paying monthly housing expenses: the poverty rate is 3.13% among mortgaged workers –not all owners have a mortgage–, and 15.14% among those who rent. Once housing expenses are paid, the number of poor workers in each group practically doubles and, in this way, the gap widens even further: 6.1% of mortgaged workers and 28.3% of workers who are tenants end up being poor.

In the country as a whole, the trend is similar, although there is more in-work poverty in all areas. 11.5% of workers are already poor even before paying for housing, a proportion that rises to 15.5% afterwards. After facing these expenses, 10% of employees who are mortgaged and 34% of those who rent remain below the threshold.

"The rental trap"

Paradoxically, the costs that tenants have to face monthly are higher than those paid by homeowners, on average. Oxfam speaks of "the rent trap": statistically, it is precisely the most vulnerable who face the highest expenses. According to the entity, tenants usually have lower-paid jobs, which undermine their saving capacity, a fact that prevents them from accessing a mortgage. In this way, "the only alternative for families with low salaries is renting," which traps them "in a vicious circle from which it is difficult to escape".

In fact, "the increase in working poverty after paying for housing is explained, mostly, by the enormous worsening of the situation of households that are renters," warns Oxfam. In this context, Oxfam warns that "the constant increase in rents places tenants in a situation of extreme vulnerability".

Working poverty stagnates

Beyond housing, the NGO based in Barcelona warns that "labor poverty in Spain has become chronic": the percentage of working poor across the country is hovering around 11.5%, with reductions that barely exceed a tenth of a percentage point between 2022 and 2024. In this same period, the Spanish economy (measured through GDP) grew by more than 6%. Labor poverty affects both full-time workers –one in ten is below the threshold– and part-time workers and the self-employed –two in ten.

By sector, one in four people who work in domestic services and the primary sector (agriculture, livestock, and fishing) are poor. Also, nearly two out of every ten employees in the hospitality and construction industries, and to a lesser extent, administrative staff, transport workers, mechanics, and artists.

These figures lead the organization to denounce that "growth is not being distributed sufficiently or equitably among the population," but rather that economic progress "continues to rely, in part, on precarious and poorly paid jobs." One in three workers born outside the European Union is poor (31%); a proportion that drops to practically half among Europeans (16%) and falls below 9% among those born in the country. Although the scourge is decreasing slightly among those born on the Old Continent, it does not stop growing among non-EU immigrants.