Journeyman earns 1,200 euros: the wage nobody wants in construction

The trade building Spain is paid like it was in 2000

The figure hits like a gong: 1,200 euros per month for a skilled foreman in construction. This data point, which emerged during a discussion about sector salaries, is not an isolated eccentricity. It is a snapshot of a trade supporting the brick-and-mortar economy while its workers watch their footing slip away. The paradox is greater if viewed from the other side of the mirror: flats are selling at record prices, and new housing continues to become more expensive, yet those who build it earn the same as they did a quarter-century ago.

Nostalgia for the 2,000 euros in Balearic Islands

Some recall with surgical precision what was earned in construction during the boom years. An inexperienced laborer could take home around 2,000 euros per month in the Balearic Islands at the beginning of the 2000s. Specialized tradesmen—plasterers, bricklayers, formwork carpenters, ironworkers—secured higher amounts, though at the cost of physical wear and tear that cannot be negotiated. The comparison is painful: today, a skilled foreman with proven experience, capable of taking on responsibilities and performing any role, earns around 1,750-1,800 euros net in the best case. Laborers earn around 1,500. The majority earns much less.

The gap with the past is not just nominal. Money was more valuable then, and the difference is felt in savings capacity. This is why those who maintain that job offers in construction have become a mirage exist: for 1,200 euros, only the desperate work. The rest prefer unemployment, IMV (a type of severance payment), or any alternative that doesn't involve breaking your back eight hours under the sun.

Who holds onto the margin?

The quick answer points to employers and imported labor. It is argued that the massive arrival of workers willing to accept worse conditions has driven up sector salaries. Dumping, they say, affects not only wages but also quality of life: whoever accepts less in everything sets the standard for the rest. Some go further and suggest that employers wanted it this way, and that unions, far from stopping the drift, looked elsewhere while the conditions of the native worker eroded.

But there is another reading that cannot be ignored. Tax pressure takes a substantial part of the pie. A worker paid 1,200 euros costs the company around 2,000, and nearly 45% of turnover goes into the hands of the State through taxes, VAT, and Social Security. Then come the tools, the van, the diesel fuel. The margin, they say, is exhausted. In this country, it is the State, not the SME (Small and Medium Enterprise), that benefits. Between what contractors, developers, and government take, the worker is caught between a rock and a hard place.

The housing price doesn't match the salaries

While wages stagnate, flat sale prices remain at historic highs. The conclusion drawn is uncomfortable: those who work the least are getting rich. Town councils, builders, and flat sellers capture the added value, while the lowest rung of the chain sees their purchasing power diminish. Quality also suffers. Houses of genuine garbage are being sold at caviar prices, with untrained labor and shifts extending until midnight, including Saturdays.

Some argue that the market regulates itself: if the salary is low, the worker either goes into reforms or becomes self-employed. Good guasons, carpenters, plasterers, or electricians who work for themselves bury any company director in black money. They don't lack work or cash, and they can afford to choose. But that individual option does not solve the fundamental problem: construction as a salaried job has become a refuge for those with no alternative.

A sector between precariousness and nostalgia

The discussion leaves a bitter taste. Some maintain that during the bubble era, although the work was hard, it paid better and jobs were plentiful. Others recall that construction has always been a sacrificial trade, and the difference is that now the sacrifice is not compensated. The lingering question is uncomfortable: if housing prices continue to rise and the salaries of those who build it do not, how long can this imbalance be maintained? The sector has a labor issue, but the real problem is that nobody wants to work for what it pays.