The group of women workers with low wages increased in 2021 while in the case of men it decreased. These are small variations but they point to a widening of the gender wage gap after years of reductions. The average gross salary for 12 payments in Spain in 2021 was 2,086.80 euros, as published by the INE. It is 2.4% more than the previous year. When analyzed by gender, it is found that the increase in women (1.7%) is almost half that of men (3%) for the same period.
The consequence is that four out of ten women are found in the low-salary group (less than 1,366.5 euros for 12 payments), while only two out of 10 men have that level of pay. Mari Cruz Vicente, secretary of CC.OO. Union Action, points out that last year the gender gap widened according to these statistics after years of narrowing thanks to increases in the interprofessional minimum wage. In 2021, the percentage of lowest salaries compared to the total number of women grew from 38.8% in 2020 to 40.5%. In the case of men the other way around: it fell from 21.8% to 20.2%.
When the average salary is analyzed, the differences are still enormous: women earn an average of 1,883.40 euros per month, compared to 2,276.90 euros for men. The INE specifies that these inequalities are because “women work part-time, with temporary contracts and in lower-paid branches of activity in a greater proportion than men.”
Nuria Gilgado, union policy secretary at the UGT of Catalonia, reflects that – in addition to suffering part-time jobs to a greater extent than men – the sectors in which they work the most are those with the lowest salaries. Domestic workers are the worst paid with 858 euros per month followed by hospitality with 1,225.8 euros. On the other hand, the best paid jobs were those in the financial and insurance activities sector (3,583 euros) plus energy (3,228 euros).
The UAB professor, Josep Oliver, reflects that the smallest increase in women’s wages occurs in the framework of 2021 when the recovery of employment occurred precisely in highly feminized sectors with low wages such as personal services, trade or hospitality. These sectors are also the ones that suffered the most job losses with the 2020 covid crisis.
The INE statistics for this Tuesday show that 2021 was the fifth consecutive year in which the average salary increased after it fell in 2016 for the first time in ten years. The increase in 2021 moderated compared to that experienced in 2020, when it rose 2.8%.
In the case of the total population (men and women), 40% of wage earners (6.64 million) earned between 1,366.50 and 2,342.20 gross euros per month in 2021, while 30% (4.98 million people) received remunerations of at least 2,342.20 euros per month and the remaining 30% (another 4.98 million employees) received a salary of less than 1,366.50 euros per month.
Analyzing the salary data by communities, those that presented the highest average salaries in 2021 were the Basque Country (2,452.90 euros) and Madrid (2,368 euros), while Extremadura (1,632.80 euros) and Andalusia (1,860.60 euros ) registered the lowest. In Catalonia it is 2,214.90 euros.
