Lawyers, doctors, accountants, consultants… The number of Catalans who have changed the factory, supermarket or call center for a professional office it has skyrocketed in the last two decades. The number of highly qualified ‘white collar’ workers has grown in importance over the last two decades, to the point that they already represent the 28% of the total employed in Catalonia, concentrate the 40% of the wage bill of the country and pay almost half of the IPRF that the State collects, according to the report of the Intercol·legial Association of Col·legis Professionals presented this Tuesday.
Another conclusion that the study leaves is that professional offices are no longer a matter of men. And it is that currently in Catalonia there are more ‘white collar’ working women with university degrees than workers. However, and despite this greater presence of the women, the wage gap not only exists, but is higher than in the economy as a whole. And the higher the range height, the greater wage gap. To the point that the difference between what male managers and female managers earn amounts to 40%, to the detriment of the latter. A gap twice as large as that between the economy as a whole.
The digitization, internationalization and sophistication of Western economies has caused companies to increasingly require more qualified employees. Industrial societies eminently made up of blue-collar workers, known for the color of their work overalls, have mutated towards post-industrial societies where they live with an increasing proportion of ‘white-collar’ workers. And the Catalan economy has not been an exception and the rise of firms in the 22@ Barcelona is an example of this.
Related news
The report from the professional associations illustrates that in the last two decades, although especially after the outbreak of the financial and real estate crisis in 2008, the labor market has gained in quality. Six out of 10 new jobs created in the growth cycle after the fall of Lehman Brothers They were qualified professionals with university degrees.
Jobs with salaries, generally, substantially better than what the average worker earns. According to the calculations of the schools, a professional with a university degree earns on average €43,011 gross per year, vs. €30,378 in which the average salary in Catalonia is located, that is, almost 1.5 times more.