Friday, September 08, 2006
Canary Island Salaries Among Lowest in Spain
Not for the first time, it is reported that salaries in the Canary Islands are amongst the lowest in Spain at an average of 15,538 euros (£10,552 / $19,685) per year net. Only workers in Extremadura, with an average salary of 15,050, are paid less. As a consequence, the cost to companies of employing someone in the Canary Islands is the lowest in Spain.
The economic incentives offered to companies in the Canary Islands are also the lowest in the country. In other areas, there are grants and tax benefits approximately double those available in the islands. The difference between the Canary Islands and Spanish communities on the mainland, is that the archipelago does have it's own powerful incentive to the creation of employment, the Reserva de Inversiones para Canarias (Canaries Investment Reserve) (RIC).
Though, according to information from the Tax Department, of the 400,000 jobs created in the Canary Islands in the last decade, 200,000 corresponded to the effect of materialization of the RIC in new enterprise investments.
How related this is to the above figures, I don't know - it is certainly relevant to the other "hot potato", immigration. A TV news report recently stated that half of all new jobs that had been created in Spain in the last decade were as the result of foreign investment.
Los sueldos de los canarios y los incentivos económicos al empleo, entre los más bajos de España
