The employers and the unions have agreed to a 10% wage increase just at the moment when the weight of wages in the Spanish economy has reached its lowest level since 2018. In the first quarter of the year, the remunerations of wage earners represented 45.8% of GDP (all that is produced in a year in the country). On the other hand, the part of the pie that businessmen took is still at the highest level since 2018, with the exception of the last part of last year, when it was still higher. It closed the first quarter at 43.8%. This process already began in the final part of 2022, so it is possible that it will be accentuated in the coming quarters.
The figures that are extracted from the GDP data published last week come after the unions on May Day (along with several ministers) demanded a better distribution of profits between company ownership and workers. Something that was agreed on Friday. The unions have also requested an observatory of business margins that the employers reject. Carlos MartÃn, director of the CC.OO. economic studies cabinet, stressed that the data shows that price control is necessary because “companies are managing to capture all the income”, unlike wage earners. MartÃn explains that thanks to public transfers via budgets, citizens can consume at higher prices and that money ends up in companies. When pensions or the SMI (minimum interprofessional wage) are raised, the final beneficiary is the companies, which end up getting more income with the rise in prices, reflects MartÃn, who believes that this process is seen in the distribution of wages and benefits in GDP.
Although the aforementioned statistic is not precise, it is the best approximation to determine what part of the pie the workers take via salaries (employee remuneration) and what part the property of the companies (operating surplus). MartÃn adds that the remuneration data includes what the self-employed receive without employees under their charge. Without these figures, the weight of salaries would be even lower, he adds.
On the other hand, sources from the CEOE employers clarify that business surpluses are not 100% comparable to the benefits obtained by companies and add that they incorporate other concepts, such as rental income. According to the organization of businessmen, it is better to analyze these types of statistics in long periods, and they warn that in recent years they have been greatly affected by the covid. The CEOE adds that, after analyzing a long period of ten years, the distribution between remuneration and business profits is more balanced.
As can be seen in the graphs, the weight of remunerations (always in relation to GDP) grows during the covid pandemic, a common behavior in situations of this type. The theory defended by CaixaBank Research in a recent report is that labor income in GDP has a countercyclical behavior, in such a way that in periods of recession companies prefer to retain their workers as much as possible by maintaining their salary. This causes the weight of remuneration to grow. On the other hand, in the phases of expansion or exit from the crisis, such as those of the last few quarters, it is the business surplus that performs best. And earn a higher percentage of the pie.
CaixaBank has also analyzed the behavior of earned income during the covid and that which occurred in the great financial crisis of 2007. It is different because the fact that in 2020 employment was maintained with public support while it sank GDP due to confinement led to the weight of labor income growing by five points. That increase has now been undone.
The statistics are also published broken down by autonomous community, although the latest available data correspond to 2022. In the case of Catalonia, the pattern is very similar to that of Spain as a whole. Last year, the weight of wages paid to total GDP was 46.8%. It is the lowest level since 2019, just before the pandemic started. On the other hand, in the case of business surpluses, the share was 44.8%. It is the highest since 2018. Probably in the first quarter these trends have sharpened.
