Alejandra Olcese

Updated Wednesday, February 7, 2024-01:23

  • Inflation Tomasz Wieladek (T. Rowe Price): "Inflation will fall in the EU in 2024, but in Spain not because of salaries"

48

% of workers

in Spain expect

their salary to rise by 5% or more this year,

expectations

that are too optimistic

compared to the real plans of companies, since only 21% of them contemplate an increase of that magnitude. according to the 2024 Labor Market Guide presented this Tuesday by Hays.

Following the salary increases recorded in

2023

, motivated by an

exceptional inflation scenario

, employees have assumed that their salaries will continue to rise at a good pace in the coming years, but companies consider these increases something "

one-off

" that will not be repeated this year, explains

Christopher Dottie

, regional general director of the company in southern Europe.

Although salary increases did occur last year, the truth is that expectations also exceeded reality then, since although 82% of workers trusted in a salary improvement, it only occurred for 65%. This has allowed the number of workers in the country satisfied with their salary to increase, although it is still very low - 54% -.

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  • Editor: ALEJANDRA OLCESE

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This hope of employees that their salary will continue to rise this year occurs after the signing of the V Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC), in May of last year, which set a

recommended increase of 3%

for this exercise and in a context of constant statements by the Government that urge salaries to continue rising. This same Tuesday, the second vice president and Minister of Labor

, Yolanda Díaz

, assured that "the Minimum Interprofessional Wage will continue to rise" and that all salaries in the country must be raised, because the average salary is 19 points from the European average. .

To do this, he plans

to reduce the working day

in exchange for the same salary, which translates into an increase in hourly wages, and open the debate on the high salaries of managers in large companies.

According to the Hays report, a total of

78% of employees

expect an improvement in payroll - 48% of more than 5%; 17% from 2.5 to 5%, and 13% from up to 2.49% -, while the proportion of companies that can offer a salary increase to their workers is lower (68%) and the increases expected are much lower. In fact, half of those considering it would make increases below 5%.

"The difference in opinions between companies and professionals about salary increases for 2024 highlights the importance of

aligning expectations with reality

. The search for an appropriate balance between remuneration and recognition highlights the need for companies to establish transparent salary criteria , which will allow for a fairer performance evaluation and greater job satisfaction for professionals," Hays points out.

More hires

Although companies are more cautious regarding their costs,

66% of those surveyed

- from a sample of 5,300 companies and professionals in Spain - plan

to hire

this year, although one in three will do so only to replace workers who leave the organization -mainly due to

retirement

. Information technology, digital commerce and engineering are the three fields where Hays foresees the most hiring.

Still, eight out of ten companies expect to find it difficult to fill these positions.

This dynamic of job creation that has been occurring in recent years has driven rotation

,

as this media outlet already reported with data from 2023, and encourages many workers who have a job to be open to changing companies. According to the report,

70% of professionals in Spain are actively looking for a

job change, compared to 63% the previous year.

This is a surprising figure because it is high, which is why Hays points out that it may be "inflated" in a certain way due to the fact that the people surveyed by this company are already willing to respond to a human resources company, so There could be some

overrepresentation

of those looking for a job change. For this reason, this data is not very consistent with the proportion of workers who are unmotivated in their job, which stands at 57%.