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Spain's minimum wage army doubles in size

Alex Dunham
Alex Dunham - [email protected]
Spain's minimum wage army doubles in size
In 2012, twelve in every 100 workers in Spain scraped by every month on €641 euros or less. Photo: Raymond Roig/AFP

Spain had twice as many people on the minimum wage (€641/$841) or below in 2012 than it did eight years before, a government study reveals.

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Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) released the worrying figures on Wednesday, basing their findings on an annual salary survey completed by country’s working population.

In 2012, twelve in every 100 workers in Spain scraped by every month on €641 euros or less; a percentage which has gradually increased following the beginning of the country’s crippling economic crisis.

According to INE, the rise in temporary jobs in Spain isn’t the only reason for the lacklustre salaries as 1.52 percent of Spaniards working full time were on the minimum wage or even less in 2012; twice as many as in 2004.

On the other side of the spectrum are Spain’s big earners, those who earn seven times the minimum wage.

According to a study by consultancy firm Capgemini and Royal Bank of Canada, the number of people in Spain with more than a million dollars available to invest grew by 11.6 percent between 2012 and 2013.

INE also highlighted that the average annual salary in Spain in 2012 was of €22,726, although the most frequent one (excluding the big earners from the average) is of €15,500.

The study doesn’t include the drop in salaries that took place in Spain in 2013 nor the rise in part time work. 

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