Spain lives its own ‘Iberian exception‘ when it comes distribution between Business and labor costs inflation. while Increasing profit sharing among business owners three times more than the eurozone average in Spain, the fees go half up. This is confirmed by a report released by UGT this Friday showing that workers’ purchasing power is 6.4% lower today than before the 2008 crisis, and that the current price crisis has further weighed on income from business. In the total wealth produced and distributed in the Spanish economy. Another fact he reveals is that the most common salary in Spain – not to be confused with the average, which is biased by the drift of highest and lowest incomes – is 1,100 euros net per month.
The UGT study takes an X-ray of what salaries are like in Spain right now, how they have developed compared to the rest of the European economies, and compares all this to the development of business accounts. And according to the union’s influence, the X-ray result is in favor of the companies, not the workers. Dividend payment to shareholders nearly doubled in this second quarter of the year Compared to the same period last year. It increased by 97.7%, more than three times the European average (28.7%). The increase in this distribution is significantly lower in France (32.7%) or Germany (36.3%).
Companies are now distributing the profits earned in the exit from the covid crisis. The companies’ expectation was that the economy would develop better than it did later, as the coronavirus chained it into a price spiral. At least, that’s what’s happening in most major European economies, but not in Spain. business margins -that is, the amount left by companies after selling them and reducing the cost of production- While it grows in Spain, it is declining in France, Italy, Germany or the Netherlands.. Specifically, in the case of Spain, these margins rose 7.9% in the first half of the year, while they fell 3.1% in the euro area as a whole; According to the UGT report based on Eurostat data.
The document confirms that most companies’ accounts have improved more than wages have risen. “85% of inflation is due to corporate profits“, condemned Fernando Luján, deputy secretary general of the UGT. “Wages are rising in Europe, on average exceeding 4%. It is unacceptable that the fourth European economy is the fourth power to increase wages the least.” labor cost per actual hour worked increased by 2% in Spain compared to an average of 4.1% for the euro area.
UGT claims to reopen salary contract
The UGT also refers to statistical estimates of the European Commission which estimate: Real salary per employee in Spain will fall by 3.1% in 2022, thus recording the seventh worst data in the eurozone. When this coincides with the development of corporate profits, which Brussels expects to increase by 2.7%, the result is that Spain will close 2022 with the fourth-highest gap between real wages and profits in the ‘Old Continent’.
With this data in hand, the union thinks it is necessary to restart negotiations with the employer for a salary agreement that will guide the increases to be made in the coming years. “We must hurry to the Employment and Collective Bargaining Agreement (AENC). a tool to instill confidence and structure collective bargaining. […] “Commercial organizations cannot continue to be stingy,” he said.