77% of workers cut back on holidays as Spain's tax burden drains summer budgets

77% of workers are cutting their holidays: summer has become expensive

The Spanish middle class's summer has turned into an exercise in financial survival. According to a Randstad study of nearly 5,700 workers, 77.3% said they will change their holiday plans this year because of the rising cost of living. This is not a hunch: it is the response of an absolute majority of respondents.

Wages are up 5% and taxes swallow the rest

Behind the holiday cutbacks lies an equation that does not add up. Over three decades, real wages have risen by around 5%. But Spain's tax burden has grown by at least 20% over the same period: the standard VAT rate went from 15% to 21%, the reduced rate from 6% to 10%, the property transfer tax (ITP) rose in many regions, and income tax deductions (for housing, medical expenses) disappeared. Add to this special levies on plastic, emissions, electricity and soft drinks: they all end up on the bill. With this backdrop, disposable income has fallen.

Nobody misses the irony: talk of competitiveness gains while the average worker calculates whether they can afford a week in Benidorm. And when summer ends, the September squeeze arrives with more expensive school books and, in some cases, the divorces that summer cohabitation accelerated.

The most striking figure: it is not that 77% are cutting their holidays; it is that the remaining 23% either have them guaranteed or do not even consider they might not. This is how the new geography of leisure takes shape: for most people, summer is now a line item in the household budget.