Salaries in Spain: best and worst paid sectors

HAVE you ever wondered which sectors offer the best salaries in Spain? The latest data released by the National Statistics Institute (INE), published this week, shows that salaries in the worst paid sectors are up to four times lower than the best paid industries.
Electricity companies, banks and the oil industry maintain their status as the sectors with the highest wages. At the other end of the spectrum, service-related sectors such as gardening, bars and restaurants and other personal services, such as hairdressing, pay the lowest wages.
In a different study also by the INE, data showed that sectors with the lowest productivity were laundries, hair salons, vet clinics, food and drink services, building management and gardening, precisely the ones that showed lower salaries.
The IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the Spanish National Bank identified recently the small size of the country’s companies as one of the reasons for measuring such a low productivity. Larger companies are more productive and allow for better wages, according to these institutions.
The sector shown to provide the best salaries was electricity, gas and air conditioning companies, with an average of €3,751 paid per month, followed by banks, with €3,403 and the oil industry, where staff are on €3,385 per month. Other sectors with high wages are air transport companies (€2,837 per month) and telecommunications (€2,782).
On the other hand, workers in laundries and hair salons earn an average of €896 per month, building management and gardening staff earn €833 per month and cooks and waiters an average of €887 per month.