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The Salary trends 2007-2015 report presented by the Human Resources consultancy ICSA Grupo and EADA shows that the salary devaluation process that began in 2009 with the economic downturn has mainly affected rank and file employees and middle management posts. “These are the less relevant profiles inside organisations”, pointed out Jordi Costa, director of EADA’s Personnel Admission, Strategic Labour Relations and Comprehensive Compensation Programmes. Managers’ salaries on the other hand have continued to rise year in year out.

This salary gap is evident if we compare the drop in salary registered among employees (253 euros less per annum) and middle management (595 euros less a year) in comparison with the rise in managers’ salaries (up 5,010 per annum). But the differences between these three groups can also be seen when we compare their average gross salary in 2015, which stood at 22,509 euros for employees, 37,799 euros for middle management and 78,605 euros for managers.  

According to Ernesto Poveda, president of ICSA Grupo, “the study shows that the salary trends chronically perpetuate the salary differences among these three brackets”. Consequently, he goes on to add “with these figures and with over 5 million people unemployed we can’t say that we have recovered from the crisis despite the fact that professional selection processes by companies have picked up”.

By sectors

The ‘Salary trends 2007-2015’ study by ICSA Grupo and EADA also points to substantial differences between these three categories depending on the sector of activity, whereby the best paid are professionals in industry, banking and insurance. In the first case, managers’ salaries have risen since 2009 and in 2015 stood at 81,849 euros. So have the salaries of middle management, although to a lesser extent –40,439 euros– and those of employees –24,380 euros–. In the banking and insurance sector a manager’s average salary was 82,604 euros, whereas the average middle management salary was 41,304 euros and that of rank and file employees was 24,716 euros. 

For yet another year employees in retailing and tourism were among the worst paid. Their salaries have dropped 6.2% since 2009 and their average salary in 2015 stood at 17,830 euros. This figure is far below the 21,193 euros figure, which is what manual workers in the construction industry earn or the 23,683 euros earned on average in the services sector. According to Mr Poveda “it is not fair that workers in retailing and tourism should continue to be the worst paid because they’re the ones who have bore the brunt of the crisis the best”. 

Autonomous Communities and Europe

The highest salaries were in regions with the highest GDP. The earnings of managers in Madrid and Catalonia –83,173 euros and 80,358 euros respectively- stand out from the rest. These are the only Autonomous Communities that are above the 80,000 euros barrier and also above the national average, 78,605 euros.

The situation with middle management is similar: Madrid is at the top of the ranking with average yearly earnings of 41,206 euros for this bracket followed by Catalonia with 38,703 euros. In the employee category however the findings were different: the highest earnings were in Navarra –25,210 euros–, followed by Madrid –23,513 euros – and the Basque Country –23,139 euros–.

There were also important differences when earnings were compared with our Italian and French neighbours, especially in the upper categories. Thus on average a Spanish manager earns 58% less than an Italian and 25% less than their French counterpart. In middle management the gap with our Italian counterparts was 49% and 15.1% with those in France. And among employees the difference with Italy was 35% and 21% with France. According to Mr Poveda “the main reason for this is that our two neighbouring countries have less rigid labour legislation than in Spain and organisations offer incentives and alternative remuneration systems”.  

Flexible remuneration

Precisely, after having comparing with France and Italy, the speakers encouraged companies to change their remuneration policies and practices and adopt more flexible models that include conciliation, training, personal and professional development and other non salary benefits –such as day nursery and restaurant vouchers-. According to Jordi Costa “greater flexibility in the drawing up of salaries has many benefits both to companies and workers in that it can increase their earnings without raising costs- it does not entail tax withholdings- and can help to narrow the salary gap between higher and lower income brackets, and also includes raises in salary for workers who obtain results, reinforcing their sense of belonging inside the organisation”.

According to Mr Poveda, “one of the main challenges that companies have is to innovate on their pay systems and adopt these kinds of flexible packages”.  In his opinion “the main reservation for not doing so is that it is a more complex system to manage. It is not the same to apply a fixed salary depending on one’s position in the company or to do so case by case taking into account the personal and professional needs of employees or the achievement of objectives”. Even so, he went on to affirm that “companies are heading towards this model because they want to retain talent and workers who are committed to the company”.