€1,600 pension vs young people's wages: Spain's generational divide
Juan paid contributions for 45 years and receives a €1,600 pension: his complaint about young people's wages reopens the generational clash and the cap of 1.5 times the minimum wage.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Juan paid in for 45 years and gets €1,600: what doesn't add up about young people's wages
Juan worked 45 years, paid contributions for 45 years and receives a pension of €1,600. He can't understand why some young people earn more than he does: "They want high wages, regular hours and no overtime." The remark, reported by Vozpópuli, has peine the clash between generations in the worst possible place: the payslip.
What you're really comparing when you compare a pension with a wage
A pension and a payslip are not the same thing. One comes from past contributions and is received without working; the other is the market price of a job. Pitting them against each other measures little and heats up a lot. And there's a detail that's often forgotten: payroll is the heaviest item on any company's balance sheet. Every euro of wages comes out of a margin that someone has to sustain, whether at a firm with three employees or one with three thousand.
Two readings cross paths without ever touching. One holds that the problem isn't the retiree, but a labour market that offers low wages and precarious contracts to those starting out. The other replies that someone who contributed for four and a half decades is entitled to their full pension, and that those on low pay should look at their employer before blaming their 70-year-old neighbour.
The cap of 1.5 times the minimum wage slipping into the debate
A concrete proposal appears in the discussion: capping public retirement pensions by law at one and a half times the SMI (Spain's minimum wage). It's not an approved measure, nor is it on the table of anyone with the power to push it through, but it works as a thermometer of the anger. And some read the whole episode as yet another front in the old-versus-young confrontation: an age conflict that's handy for avoiding a debate about incomes.
The most uncomfortable part isn't the anger. It's the déjà vu. It's been pointed out that this same story resurfaces every so often with the same name, the same figure and the same rows. A country spending years arguing over the same payslip — someone else's.
Juan worked 45 years, paid contributions for 45 years and receives a pension of €1,600. He can't understand why some young people earn more than he does: "They want high wages, regular hours and no overtime." The remark, reported by Vozpópuli, has peine the clash between generations in the worst possible place: the payslip.
What you're really comparing when you compare a pension with a wage
A pension and a payslip are not the same thing. One comes from past contributions and is received without working; the other is the market price of a job. Pitting them against each other measures little and heats up a lot. And there's a detail that's often forgotten: payroll is the heaviest item on any company's balance sheet. Every euro of wages comes out of a margin that someone has to sustain, whether at a firm with three employees or one with three thousand.
Two readings cross paths without ever touching. One holds that the problem isn't the retiree, but a labour market that offers low wages and precarious contracts to those starting out. The other replies that someone who contributed for four and a half decades is entitled to their full pension, and that those on low pay should look at their employer before blaming their 70-year-old neighbour.
The cap of 1.5 times the minimum wage slipping into the debate
A concrete proposal appears in the discussion: capping public retirement pensions by law at one and a half times the SMI (Spain's minimum wage). It's not an approved measure, nor is it on the table of anyone with the power to push it through, but it works as a thermometer of the anger. And some read the whole episode as yet another front in the old-versus-young confrontation: an age conflict that's handy for avoiding a debate about incomes.
The most uncomfortable part isn't the anger. It's the déjà vu. It's been pointed out that this same story resurfaces every so often with the same name, the same figure and the same rows. A country spending years arguing over the same payslip — someone else's.
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (30 replies).
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