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Foreign workers in Murcia earn €8,500 less than Spanish employees
One in six workers in the Region of Murcia is now foreign, according to Social Security figures
Foreign workers in the Region of Murcia are earning an average of €8,500 less per year than their Spanish counterparts, according to newly released salary figures from Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE).
The data, based on 2024 earnings, shows that foreign workers in the Region earn an average annual salary of €18,556, compared with €27,004 for Spanish workers, a gap of roughly 32%.
The figures come as Murcia becomes increasingly reliant on foreign labour, particularly in sectors such as agriculture, hospitality, logistics and manual work. Foreign employees now account for almost 15% of all registered workers in the Region.
Despite that growing importance to the local economy, the report suggests many migrant workers continue to be concentrated in lower-paid or more physically demanding jobs.
The wage gap in Murcia is also significantly worse than the national average. Across Spain as a whole, foreign workers earn around €23,450 per year, roughly €5,000 more than migrant workers in Murcia.
The report also highlighted continuing differences in pay between men and women.
Foreign men in the Region earn more than €20,000 annually on average, while foreign women earn less than €16,000. Among the wider workforce, the gender pay gap across Murcia remains close to €6,000 per year.
Overall, workers in the Region of Murcia earned an average salary of €26,349 in 2024, up 4% compared with the previous year.
Industry remains the best-paid sector with average salaries of €28,479, followed by services at just under €26,000. Construction workers earned an average of €24,660.
One of the more surprising findings in the report was that temporary workers in Murcia actually earned more on average than permanent employees, with temporary contracts averaging more than €30,000 annually compared with around €25,800 for permanent staff.
Age also continues to play a major role in earnings. Workers over 55 earned close to €30,000 on average, while under-25s earned less than €14,000 per year.
At the same time, the number of foreign workers paying into Spain’s Social Security system in Murcia continues to grow rapidly.
The Region ended 2025 with more than 110,000 foreign contributors, an increase of over 6,000 compared with the previous year. According to government figures, roughly one in every three new workers added in Murcia last year was of foreign origin.
Image: Freepik
