Almost three out of every ten people fall into poverty after paying rent, according to Oxfam

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

"Access to housing is, currently, one of the main pillars 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 highly 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 almost all the rest are renting. 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 working 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 have a mortgage 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 owners, on average. Oxfam speaks of "the rent trap": statistically, it is precisely the most vulnerable who face the highest expenses. According to the organization, tenants tend to have lower-paying jobs, which undermine their savings capacity, a fact that prevents them from accessing a mortgage. In this way, "the only alternative for families with low wages 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 at 11.5%, with reductions that barely exceed a tenth between 2022 and 2024. During 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 dedicated to domestic work and the primary sector (agriculture, livestock, and fishing) is poor. Also, nearly two out of every ten employees in hospitality and construction and, to a lesser extent, administrative staff, transport workers, mechanics, and artists.

These numbers 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 by almost half among Europeans (16%) and falls below 9% among those born in the country. Although the scourge is slightly reducing among those born on the Old Continent, it does not stop growing among non-EU immigrants.