The wage bill of Spanish public administrations exceeded all historical records last year. According to the official INE National Accounts figures published today in the newspaper El Economista, in 2021 the amount of salaries of public sector employees (civil servants along with other categories of public sector staff) plus their payments for social security contributions amounted to 147.363 billion per year.
And with inflation soaring, everything points to the fact that the 150 billion euros mark will soon be reached, or even surpassed, considering the speed with which this item of expenditure is increasing (almost 10% in just one financial year, between 2020 and 2021).
This item has seen an increase of more than 17% compared to the peak of 125.383 billion euros at its previous high, before the crisis began in 2008. The financial turmoil that then ensued forced a reduction in this disbursement to the minimum of 113.630 billion euros in 2012.
