Report says Spain has 1.5 million too many public employees

Spain pays 67 billion a year to an army of public employees a report deems excessive

There is one figure that sums up the discontent: **1.5 million public employees would be surplus** in Spain. The calculation, released alongside an annual cost of **67 billion euros**, has peine a debate that goes beyond the payroll. The Spanish Administration would be paying the salaries of 19 million Spaniards, five million more than the private sector, according to the figures circulating at the start of this controversy. The number is not neutral: it hits the pocket of anyone who gets up early and watches half of what they earn go in taxes.

The cost of the public structure compared to private wages

Public wage spending stands **45% above Germany** and **15% above the Eurozone average**, according to the comparisons accompanying the report. At the same time, the fiscal burden on a Spaniard would be almost **50% higher** than that of a German. The combination of both variables — more public spending on staff and more tax pressure — is what fuels the thesis that the public sector has become a burden on the productive economy.

The ratio of public employees to private-sector workers has gone from **1 for every 8.4 in 1976** to **1 for every 4.9** today. In parallel, public debt climbed from **7% of GDP in 1976** to over **100%** in recent figures. These are not isolated numbers: they sketch a shift in the model, in which the State has gained weight as an employer while the private economy has lost its capacity to absorb jobs.

Why can't a civil servant be fired even if the State goes broke?

The rigidity of the civil service system is the point that draws the most consensus among those calling for reform. Positions are obtained through competitive exams and held for life; dismissal, except through disciplinary proceedings, is practically non-existent. Some argue that this protection turns the civil servant into a captive voter of the party that guarantees their paycheck. The argument has an uncomfortable electoral logic: any party promising to cut the public sector faces a bloc of voters moved not by ideology but by self-interest.

Absenteeism adds fuel to the fire. **118,000 public employees miss work every day**, **27% of them without sick leave**. Sick leaves among Muface civil servants (the public health scheme for state employees) last **29% longer** than those of private employees. And the Government reportedly admitted it was not counting its staff properly: **300,000 hidden public workers** surfaced after a review. Digitalization, meanwhile, is advancing: an army of robots could replace one in three administrative staff for about **11,200 euros a year**.

Crony hiring as a system: from Mérida to the SEPI

Nepotistic hiring is not an isolated case. An audio recording of the Socialist mayor of Mérida acknowledged that "many of us here are breaking the law." In the Valencian regional government, **massive crony hires and 700 million in discretionary awards** were reportedly detected during Puig's tenure. And it is pointed out that Sánchez allegedly accelerated the placement of allies in SEPI companies (the state holding that owns key public firms). The pattern repeats itself: the public job as political currency.

The argument that dismantles the figure: Germany is not comparable

Not everyone agrees with the diagnosis. Some point out that Germany has hardly any health staff paid from public funds because its Bismarckian health system is financed through private insurers and mutual funds, which invalidates a direct comparison. It is also noted that the excess is not in the central State but in the **local and regional public sector**: provincial councils, town halls and autonomous communities where clientelism inflates payrolls. In policing and justice, on the other hand, there would be no surplus but a deficit.

The debate over whether 1.5 million jobs are surplus or whether the problem is merely one of distribution remains open. Will any party dare to touch the structure without losing the votes that sustain it?

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