Is having a job synonymous with being able to make ends meet? According to the report The State of Poverty. Monitoring of the EU Agenda 2023 indicators, in 2021, 27.8% of the Spanish population was at risk of poverty and social exclusion. A situation that not only affects people without studies or with average studies, but surprisingly also university students, as they point out in the report.
However, as discouraging as these figures are, there is a worrying trend, perhaps more so, which comes from the U.S. It is known as the “working poor” and is that having a job does not always mean being able to make ends meet or have a decent life. In fact, the 13th State of Poverty Report states that up to 32.9% of people who have a job are in poverty. This is a worrying situation which, it seems, is here to stay in our country as well.
It is true that it is curious that since the pandemic this prevailing trend in the U.S. seems to have been left behind or, at least, it is something they are achieving little by little with considerable effort. However, in Spain this is not the case and the situation is increasingly worrying. What is happening?
Do wages and the rise in the shopping list increase the risk of poverty?
In recent years, we have experienced a brutal rise in taxes that has made it increasingly difficult to buy basic goods. People are taking a closer look at where to buy their essentials, as, according to Statista, some supermarkets saw a 10% increase this year, while others saw a 16% rise.
However, that’s not all. Now that winter is approaching, electricity has suffered a spike that has caused growing concern in households that will not know if when temperatures reach minimums they will be able to put the heating on. The Consumers’ Organization (OCU) estimates that in January the bill will skyrocket, so this is another factor that has an impact on consumers’ pockets.
What has happened to wages? The rise has been 8% this year, which lags far behind the rises in the shopping list and expected for electricity. Therefore, there is no balance between the salary and the expenditure that can be made in acquiring the most basic goods, which increases the number of poor workers.
Workers who cannot afford housing
If we are talking about rises, we cannot ignore how the Euribor continues to impact the possibility of buying a home. Mortgages continue to be on the rise and interest rates remain at an average of 3.50%, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE) report. This has led to a reduction in the number of mortgage applications, which has dropped by 21.9%, as reflected in the aforementioned report.
Rental prices are not too encouraging either. The demand is very high and the upward trend causes serious difficulties in accessing housing, even if you have a job. Therefore, this trend of poor workers in the U.S. has already reached our country and the objective is to solve it as soon as possible, although in the short term it seems that the situation is quite complicated.
The figures are shocking. The Madrid Food Bank Foundation closed the 2022 financial year with a problem threshold amounting to 21.6%. This year, that percentage was expected to improve, but the increasing rises in the shopping list, electricity and housing are worrying about the figures that will come in this year.
Improving salaries and taking measures to avoid an imbalance between these and the high rises that cause consumers to have to think about what they will or will not eat this month, or whether they will be able to pay the heating this winter, should be a priority. For when having a job can be synonymous with poverty, the situation becomes critical. A fact that has started in the USA, but now also affects Spain.