The government has announced that the minimum wage level in Spain will be frozen at 645 euros a month for 2014. That’s just 21,51€ a day for eight hours of work. Or, to put it another way, a minimum wage chappie will work all day to afford two G&T’s in a fancy chiringuito on the playa (but has enough for the bus home and a chupa chup to keep him busy whilst musing on the folly of spending 10€ on a watered down gin).
The IPREM -a complicated statistical table used to calculate student grants, pensions and unemployment benefits – also remains fixed at just 532.51€ a month.
However, the minimum wage for the self employed (autonomos – the table is called the RETA) has gone up to 875,70€ a month, 2%. Why? Because the self employed pay a minimum level of tax on this level, so the government will get more tax back by rising the RETA. About as cunning as being hit in the face with a kipper, but it gets the job done.
According to my salary tables, only Portugal and Greece in Western Europe have lower minimum wages than Spain. Slovenia, interestingly enough, has a higher minimum wage than Spain. Çe le vie.
Maybe we could just steal a pedalo and make a try for Morocco… Get some farming work in the Rif, send some money back home to help the family?
Labour costs are not what’s blocking employment. By keeping wages so low, it is keeping domestic demand flatlined. If wages go up, consumer spending and savings will follow, which in turn helps create jobs and begins to get the wheels of banking turning, however erratically.
Spain’s a giant turd ball. The best thing that could happen would be if it were to slowly sink into the Atlantic and disappear from the face of the planet forever. I’m with Neb, gotta get out while we can before Mariano Franco closes the borders to keep the cheap young labor in.