Thursday, April 20, 2006
Poverty In the Canary Islands
It is, of course, impossible that anywhere is all "sunshine and smiles" and, in this, the Canary Islands are no different from anywhere else. Something that, as visitors, you would be unlikely to be aware, however, is the true level of poverty of the hard working people who keep your hotel rooms clean, serve your food and otherwise pamper you on your stay.
Prensa Alternativa in this post on ¿Salario Social en Canarias? point out that, according to official statistics, more than 20% of the Canary Islands population lives below the poverty line, which is to say, have to live on less than half of the average salary.
Almost 400,000 people are in this situation. Also, even though employment has risen, it is characterized by seasonal work, precariousness (that is, with short-term contracts that do not allow workers to plan their futures) and low salaries. Many employees can be considered poor, because they do not earn any more than the minimum salary.
Spain has a minimum salary fixed by law, which according to the latest figures I could find, for 2005, was 17.10 Euros (roughly £11.40) per day or 513 Euros (approximately £342) per month. Workers with temporary contracts do have to be paid extras, which brings the daily figure up to 24.29 Euros (around £16) per day. Workers paid hourly, such as domestic cleaners, have their rate fixed at a minimum of 4.01 Euros (£2.60) per hour.
However, whilst the concept of minimum salary seems like a good idea on the surface, one of the frequent "abuses" of this system - and I have had employers play this game of words with me - is that they twist "the minimum we have to pay by law" into "exactly what we have to pay by law", making it into the maximum you can expect to receive too.
When the minimum salary was first introduced in 1963, wages in Spain stabilized. During the 1970's, the spending power of the minimum salary rose 2.5 times. However, in the 80's, this trend turned downward, as can be seen in these graphs.
When the press and media talk of poverty, they usually cite cases of people who have to live on 300 Euros (about £200) a month, or less. It is hard to imagine anywhere on earth where that is possible and though the cost of living is lower in the Canary Islands than in northern Europe, it certainly would be very difficult to do so, even here.
Such poverty leads to marginalization and misery. There is more poverty amongst youngsters, women, single parent families and the old and, causes rises in petty theft.
Prensa Alternative and EA-Canarias, rightly IMHO, say that it up to all of us to change the situation. As visitors, you may be wondering what you can do. One thing is to think twice before buying ultra cheap, all-in package holidays. They leave little, if any, money actually in the pockets of the local people. Know that tips are more than necessary and greatly appreciated. Insist that the people who serve you are afforded a dignified salary.
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