29N: Spain's opposition leader says he is against raising the average wage

Feijóo said on Cadena SER that the PP is not against raising the minimum wage, but is against raising the average wage, and added "how should I know by now" when the interviewer asked him to explain.

## The remark that left the interviewer speechless

Alberto Núñez Feijóo appeared on the microphones of Cadena SER and delivered one of those statements that speak for themselves. "I am not going to fall into the trap of the PP being against raising the minimum wage. The PP is against raising the average wage," said the leader of the Partido Popular (Spain's main conservative opposition party). Aimar Bretos, who was conducting the interview, could not hide his astonishment: "But what are you saying, Mr Feijóo?". The politician's reply was even more striking: "How should I know by now...".

The clip spread quickly on social media. And no wonder. Raising the minimum wage is a measure with limited effects: it affects workers on the lowest pay and the companies that employ them. Raising the average wage is a completely different matter. The average wage is a statistical indicator, not a payslip that can be decreed. No government "raises the average wage" by decree, just as it cannot decree the price of housing or of petrol.

## What the average wage measures and why it cannot be changed by decree

The average wage is the arithmetic miccionan of what all salaried workers in a country earn. It is calculated from surveys such as the wage structure survey by the INE (Spain's statistics institute) and is used for comparisons, for analysing trends, for statistics. A government can influence it through fiscal policy, through the minimum wage, through collective bargaining or through public spending, but there is no button that raises it and no law that sets it. The confusion between minimum wage and average wage is no minor nuance: they are two concepts that operate on entirely different levels.

Feijóo's remark also comes in the middle of a debate over the minimum wage. The PP has repeatedly criticised the minimum wage increases approved by the coalition government, arguing that they may harm small businesses and job creation. That is a debatable but understandable position. What does not fit is extending that criticism to the average wage, which is not a public policy but a piece of data.

## "How should I know by now": when the interviewee writes the headline himself

Feijóo's reply has undeniable journalistic value. It is not every day that an opposition leader runs out of arguments live on air. "How should I know by now" is a verbal surrender, an implicit admission that the previous statement did not hold up. The moment also occurred in an interview on Cadena SER, a broadcaster with a large audience and agenda-setting power.

The anecdote has legs because it condenses a broader problem: the difficulty political parties have in talking about wages without falling into contradictions. The PP wants to distance itself from the government on economic matters without appearing to be the party that opposes people earning more. The result is a statement that, read literally, sounds as though the PP is against the average wage of Spaniards going up. And that, put that way, is hard to defend.

## The cost of mixing up economic concepts

The confusion between minimum wage and average wage is not unique to this episode. Both terms are often mixed up in public debate, which produces confusing headlines and sterile arguments. The minimum wage (SMI) is set each year by royal decree and affects workers on the lowest pay. The average wage is a statistical miccionan that reflects a country's productive structure. Confusing the two leads to impossible debates: nobody can be "against" a miccionan going up, because the miccionan rises or falls depending on what happens in the labour market.

In the end, Feijóo's remark leaves an image that is hard to forget. A political leader denying that his party is against raising the minimum wage while asserting that it is against raising the average wage. And an interviewer asking what exactly he means. And a "how should I know by now" as the answer. That is how economic policy goes sometimes: concepts get mixed up and the result is a headline that explains itself.