The rise in wages continued to be insufficient in the second quarter of the year to offset inflation. As a result, wages suffered real cuts, in average terms, of 4.6%, according to data released this Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

In the press release, the INE reveals that the average total monthly gross remuneration per worker increased by 3.1% in the quarter ending in June, compared to the same period in 2021, to 1,439 euros (both the regular component and the base grew by 2.5%). But with the effect of inflation, there was a cut of 4.6% (both components fell 5.1%).

These figures take into account the salaries of 4.4 million public and private workers. And a change in the consumer price index of 8% in the second quarter.

The trend of losses already comes from behind. In the first quarter of the year, the average gross monthly salary per worker had risen by 2.2%, to 1,258 euros, but in real terms, that is, with the impact of inflation, it fell by 2%.

With the impact of inflation, the average salary falls 2% in the first quarter

Salaries go up more in private

The INE analysis also reveals that in the public administration sector, total remuneration increased, in nominal terms (excluding the effect of inflation), by 1.4%, to 2,180 euros, in June 2022. In the private sector , the gain was greater: it rose 4.4% to 1,289 euros.

The INE justifies the differences in the level of wages with the “type of work performed” and the “qualification of the workers that comprise it”. According to the institute, public administration workers “have, on average, higher levels of education: 54.3% of workers in this sector had higher education (22.0% in the private sector), 25, 5% had completed secondary or post-secondary higher education (31.4% in the private sector) and 20.2% had a level of education corresponding to, at most, the 3rd cycle of basic education (46.6% in the private sector )”.

By activity sectors, the greatest increase in total remuneration has occurred in the activities of electricity, gas, steam, hot and cold water and cold air, and the smallest in public administration and defense activities, compulsory Social Security (0. 1%) and in human resources. health and social support activities (0.8%).

It was in the smallest companies where the average salary increased the most (6.5% in companies with one to four employees; and 5.5% in those with five to nine employees) and in the largest ones where it increased the least (0. 1% in those with between 250 and 499 workers).