Spain was one of the seven countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, the think tank of the world's most developed economies) where last year the rise in taxes on wages far outstripped the increase in salaries, resulting in a loss of real income. The calculation, however, does not take into account the value of the public services citizens receive, which are funded by taxes.

Until 2022, and for more than 10 years, a hamburger chain sold one of theirs for 1 euro. Today, one costs 1.85. This is one of the clearest examples of inflation. And your salary, has it increased by 85% in 3 years? This is one of the best examples of the loss of purchasing power.

How much should presidents be paid? In Catalonia, it has historically been decided that the salary of the President of the Generalitat should be among the highest in the State. In fact, for years the President of the Generalitat has occupied the first position in the ranking. Carles Ramió, a professor of political science at Pompeu Fabra University, warns that the debate about politicians' salaries tends to be full of demagoguery and points to the need to have well-paid public servants to attract talent and avoid pernicious dynamics. Furthermore, he recalls that all figures are gross, meaning that tax withholdings make the net figure substantially lower.The draft budget for 2026 foresees that the salary of the head of the executive, Salvador Illa, will increase by 6,378.88 euros, rising from the 140,256.96 euros he received last year to 146,635.84 annually. To put this into perspective, the Basque Lehendakari, Imanol Pradales, second in the ranking, receives 117,243.14 euros, while the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, in third position, earns 103,090.32 euros. The gap is even wider when we look towards Moncloa: the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, has a salary of 95,943.96 euros, almost 51,000 euros less than Illa.This hierarchy is also maintained at the second tier. A minister of the Generalitat of Catalonia earns 130,049.36 euros, exceeding the 104,512.94 euros of a minister from the Basque Country or the 103,080.48 euros of their Madrid counterparts.Beyond the Government: where are the highest salaries found?If we look at the legislative chambers, the presidencies of the Cortes Generales and the Parliament of Catalonia represent the highest peaks. According to data from the remuneration registry, the president of the Parliament of Catalonia, Josep Rull, will receive 151,995.48 euros in 2026, while in Spain, the president of the Congress, Francina Armengol, earns 230,911.66 euros and the president of the Senate, Pedro Rollán, earns 191,240.42 euros.However, where are the highest salaries in the public sector? In Spain, public companies and regulatory bodies top the list. The three highest salaries are practically identical and correspond to the presidency of Loterías de l'Estat (252,474.97 euros), SEPI (251,242.18), and CESCE (251,530). In Catalonia, while the artistic director of the TNC, the general director, and the president of Ferrocarrils top the podium with 125,001.76 euros, these do not exceed the president's figures.Change of mind"I will make a commitment: I will lower the salary of the President of the Generalitat to the highest salary of a regional president other than Catalonia, which is that of the Lehendakari. It is a 30% reduction, to be close to the people." This was one of the proposals made by Salvador Illa during the 2021 election campaign. Although he was the most voted, he could not govern in that legislature, and in the following election campaign, that of 2024, he no longer repeated this commitment.In 2021, the president's remuneration was at its historical maximum, 153,236 euros, with Quim Torra at the head of the Generalitat. His successor, Pere Aragonès, , bringing it down to 130,251 euros. Since then, it has been revalued to maintain purchasing power.Faced with criticism for this change of opinion, Illa defended himself last Wednesday in Parliament, stating before the Plenary: "The increase [foreseen in the budgets] is what has been applied to all public servants in Catalonia, and I am a public servant of Catalonia." This increase is a result of the application of the legal framework that links the salaries of senior officials to the increases agreed for all civil servants.Paying little can be expensiveThe debate about public salaries is not just a matter of figures. Ramió warns that demagoguery about low salaries has a hidden cost: the difficulty in attracting competent managers. According to the political scientist, "for every two or three proposals they make for a minister, they often say no" because, fundamentally, "compared to the market and considering the responsibility, the salary is very low." If the public sector is not competitive, Ramió states, it risks being left in the hands of unprofessional profiles.Ramió also warns of two other risks associated with low salaries. When pressure and responsibility are extreme, but the remuneration is "ridiculous," it opens the door, in his opinion, to corruption. And, as a final reflection, he invites us to consider the model of the "rich politician" who doesn't need a salary, personified by Donald Trump. He ironically states that if the goal is to pay the minimum, "the best president in the world is Donald Trump, because he only earns a dollar a year." But the risk of this mirage is high: "What do we want? For politics to be done only by the rich?"

Everyone has a general idea of ​​how their salary compares to their peers. But do you really know if your salary is high or low compared to the rest of the population in your region, any other region, or even in Spain as a whole? We offer a calculator that will allow you to discover how many people earn more and less than you and where your income falls in relation to the national and regional salary scales. Here it is:

The Ministry of Labor and the UGT and CCOO unions, but not the employers' associations, have agreed this Thursday to raise the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI). 1,221 euros gross in 14 paymentsThis represents a 3.1% increase compared to 2025. It's a rise of 37 euros per month, as announced by the Secretary of State for Labor, Joaquín Pérez Rey. The Council of Ministers will soon approve the salary increase, which will be retroactive to January 1st of this year. The employers' associations CEOE and Cepyme have distanced themselves from the agreement and rejected the increase, as anticipated in the statement released Thursday morning, in which they labeled the tax deduction in corporate income tax for the companies most affected by the pay increase as "deceptive" and "interventionist." According to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Labor and the unions agree that this salary level will remain exempt from personal income tax.

Catalonia is growing. Its GDP is growing at a faster pace than most European countries, and employment has recovered strongly after the years of crisis. But that dynamism does not reach everyone.: Every year, more and more Catalan households are struggling to make ends meet – today it's already one in ten. Wages have risen, yes, but the cost of living has done so moreWhile the economy expands, the purchasing power of a large part of the population stagnates. And this imbalance explains why, despite growth, we don't live better. But this reality is not the same for everyone. While one part of the population sees their salary lose purchasing power, another continues to accumulate income and profits. The latest report from the CNMV is a good example of this: the management positions of companies in The Ibex earns 55 times more than its employeesThis growing gap is not only a symptom of inequality: it calls into question how the benefits of growth are distributed. The real challenge is not to grow more, but to grow equitably.

Inflation in the years immediately following the pandemic eroded household purchasing power, and in most advanced economies, wages have yet to recover. According to a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, the umbrella organization of the world's major developed economies), by the third quarter of last year, wages had recovered to the purchasing power they had in 2020 in only 12 of the 33 most advanced countries.

Labor costs—the cost to the company of each employee, including salary and other expenses such as social security contributions—closed 2024 at historic highs in both Catalonia and Spain, according to a survey published Monday by the National Statistics Institute (INE). Specifically, labor costs in Catalonia averaged €3,483 at the end of the fourth quarter, after increasing by 2.6% compared to the last quarter of the previous year, while in Spain as a whole they averaged €3,258 per month, a 3.6% increase.

Small retailers in Catalonia have noticed in 2022 a drop in sales and in the sector's overall situation in comparison with last year, according to a study elaborated by Catalan SME association Pimec. Likewise, the sector's companies have difficulties to find qualified labour.

One out of every four women (27%) earnt the equivalent of minimum interprofessional wage or less. This percentage was only 12% among men, according to the Wage Structure Survey 2020, published this Wednesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE). The agency highlights that this situation is influenced by the larger percentage of women working part-time. At the same time, 3.7% of men earnt salaries five times higher than minimum wage or more during this same fiscal year, compared to 1.9% of women

In the last two weeks, employers and unions have not found the time to sit down and negotiate what the wage revision to be included in the new Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC) should be. The latest consumer price index (CPI), published in March, put inflation at 9,8%, making the negotiation process even more complicated, especially due to the fear of so-called second-round effects. "We don't know of any imminent meetings," sources close unions and business organisations say. But, while the new AENC continues to be a faraway prospect, wages continue to lose purchasing power.

Electricity prices skyrocketed last year as anyone who pays their monthly electricity bill well knows. This resulted in a sharp increase in the profits of these companies, which tripled, as ARA explained this week. What is not so well known is that during that year six directors, the main executives of large Spanish energy companies, were paid over €27m. In other words, the leaders of these companies were paid 5.2% more while, on average, their workers' salaries increased less than a third of that percentage, 1.5%.

Spain has taken another step towards making minimum wage 60% of the average wage. The Spanish government will approve an increase to minimum wage, which will go up to €14,000 per annum. It will be retroactive, starting from January 1. This places the State in seventh position within the European Union table of highest minimum wage and leaves Bulgaria and Latvia as the only two EU countries which, for now, have not increased minimum wage in 2022.

Employer association Foment del Treball has changed its tune regarding wages. If only a month ago the Catalan employers' association defended "moderation" of salaries in the midst of a record rise in inflation, today it has stated that salaries have to rise so that workers do not lose purchasing power. "Not only the minimum wage has to go up, but all wages," said the president of Foment, Josep Sánchez Llibre, in an interview on La 2 - Ràdio 4. Wages "have to be competitive and people have to earn a living," added Llibre.

"We have runaway inflation. Wages have to go up." Secretary general of Union UGT, Pepe Álvarez, has started the new year with a demand that he already tabled weeks before the Christmas campaign. This Tuesday, the union leader has once again demanded that in the face of rising inflation –the advanced year-on-year CPI for the month of December stood at 6.7%– and, in order not to lose purchasing power, it is necessary for workers to see their salaries increase much more. The visible face of the other major union (CCOO), Unai Sordo, has spoke along the same lines: "Spain cannot afford to lose purchasing power".

CaixaBank and BBVA have announced massive layoffs in the last few days and the Spanish government has asked the financial institutions to take responsibility. In addition, the vice-president and Minister of Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, has introduced a new element into the debate: she has contrasted the layoffs with the high salaries of bankers, who, by the way, are part of a sector that was largely bailed out with public money during the previous crisis.