Compiled with the help of artificial intelligence, based on Spanish-language information. Source below the article.
Canarias sinks to bottom of Spain’s salary table
In the first quarter of this year, the salary cost variable for Canarias was already bad, or very bad, in the comparison across Spain’s autonomous communities compiled by the National Statistics Institute (INE) on the basis of the Quarterly Labour Cost Survey. At that point, Canarias sat in second-to-last place (16th), with only Extremadura behind it at the foot of the table. But this time, with the most recent data published — for the second quarter of 2026, released this Thursday — the islands have dropped the last rung they had left and now return to the very bottom among Spain’s 17 autonomous communities. The Canary Islands archipelago is once again the worst performer, appearing in last place.
It is worth bearing in mind that salary cost is always lower than labour cost, since the latter includes Social Security contributions and other tax payments, such as income tax withholdings (gross salary). This salary cost figure for Canarias comes at a time when tourism is growing relentlessly in the islands (more than three years of this trend, since mid-2023) and generating ever better business revenues (also the case for more than three years, albeit with some moderation in the current year compared with the record-breaking 2025, when 18.4 million tourists arrived in total).
Services sector dominates an economy breaking GDP records
This productive activity — the services sector, with lower average wages than industry and construction — is the undisputed economic engine of Canarias, accounting for 37% of its GDP. What is more, that same period has been one in which the archipelago has led the country in economic growth in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is also true that this salary cost variable (for the second quarter of 2026) has been released at a moment when the so-called cost of living has done nothing but worsen, with annual inflation at a record level for the moment — the August 2026 measurement, the most recent, reaching 3.8%.
2,016 euros a month: almost 500 euros below the national average
Canarias thus becomes the region where workers take home the lowest average salary in the whole of Spain, at just 2,016 euros a month (across 12 months), which means receiving almost 500 euros less than the national average, the country’s salary cost, which stands at 2,513 euros a month over the same period analysed. With that figure, the islands move in the second quarter of 2026 into last place in the regional ranking based on the salaries received by those in employment. That bottom position is worse than in the first quarter of the year, when Extremadura, now second from bottom, was the red lantern.
The Canarian worker, again according to the statistics provided by the INE, takes home an average monthly salary of 2,016 euros, an increase of 4.1% on the same figure for the second quarter of 2025 (year-on-year). The average salary figure for Canarians is slightly lower than that of Extremadura (2,022 euros a month), its usual travelling companion at the bottom of the aforementioned regional ranking. The salary paid in the islands — what actually lands in the worker’s bank account — is almost 500 euros a month lower than the Spanish average of 2,513 euros, and more than 400 euros below the figure recorded for the Balearic Islands (2,428 euros).
The highest threshold for this variable once again belongs to Madrid, at 3,060 euros a month, more than 1,000 euros above the figure recorded for the Canary Islands archipelago.
Bottom of the table for hourly pay too
In general, all the figures provided by the INE in the study published this Thursday are negative for Canarias (from the worker’s point of view), since last place for monthly salary cost in April to June of this year is compounded by the lowest salary payment per actual hour worked, at 15.46 euros in the islands, and the lowest hourly labour cost for the employer, at 21.37 euros.
As the INE reports, the labour cost for companies in Spain rose by 4% in the second quarter of this year compared with the same period a year earlier, 2025, and stood at 3,388.15 euros per worker per month. That average absolute figure includes Social Security payments and other obligations that also fall to the employer. If the national variable is broken down, salary cost rose by 4%, to 2,512.68 euros, while other costs rose by 4.2%. Compulsory Social Security contributions, the main component of other costs, grew by 4.2%.
By autonomous community, the Principality of Asturias, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid recorded the largest increases in labour cost in the second quarter of the year, while Extremadura, the Chartered Community of Navarre and La Rioja posted the smallest rises.
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