Salary in Spanish public administrations. A study of their internal equity

Abstract

This article analyzes the salary of more than twenty thousand senior positions in Spanish public administrations from the perspective of their internal equity, their salary structure and their link with the vertical career path. For this purpose, the central administration of five autonomous communities, five local administrations and the General State Administration have been studied.

Among the main results of the research, it is worth highlighting the existence of significant differences in the salaries of the administrations located in the territory of Autonomous Community Madrid; there is a salary overlap at the lower levels of the higher positions that can generate demotivation among civil servants; the salary ranges of the administrations studied are relative narrow, with those of Bilbao and the Basque Country standing out; internal equity is weak as there is no good correspondence between responsibility and the salaries assigned to higher positions; the implementation of a future horizontal career would mean an increase in personnel costs for many public administrations; and the career of the senior civil service in Spain is relatively short.