Large technology companies pay gold salaries also in Spain. And it compensates them

The Netflix logo at its headquarters in Spain, in the Madrid municipality of Tres Cantos.Alejandro Martínez Vélez / Europa Press

Working in the technology area of ​​one of the US digital giants in Spain is a luxury available to few. Facebook, Netflix, Google, Twitter, Apple and Microsoft remunerate their workforces with annual gross salaries of between 131,000 and 205,000 euros, which yields average gross monthly salaries of between 10,900 and 17,000 euros. Companies, which tend to use all possible fiscal resources to avoid paying taxes, are thus able to attract the most qualified professionals. National companies in the sector, such as telephone operators, offer lower remuneration.

Large US technology companies that operate in Spain have a bad reputation - partly deserved - because, despite their large profits, they barely pay taxes, using tax engineering practices and locating their tax headquarters in countries with lax taxation. But on the positive side, it must be admitted that they pay their employees much better than the average for national companies and well above Spanish technology companies. But it's not about philanthropy or generosity. In the payment of these high emoluments there is a powerful reason: the profitability obtained per worker is also much higher than that achieved by national companies.

The workers of the Spanish subsidiaries of Facebook, Netflix, Google, Twitter, Apple and Microsoft earn on average between 131,000 euros and 205,000 gross per year, that is, between 10,900 and 17,000 gross per month (in 12 annual payments), regardless of social charges, according to the latest figures declared by the companies in the 2019 accounts deposited in the Mercantile Registry.

A more than considerable remuneration if one takes into account that the average salary in Spain is 24,009 euros per year and the so-called most frequent salary, the one that is closer to that charged by all workers, of 18,468 euros, according to the latest survey available National Institute of Statistics (INE), corresponding to 2018.

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This high cost is more than justified by the return they get from the work of their workers.

The average turnover per employee of these firms ranges from 4.67 million euros per year registered by Facebook to 283,000 euros by Twitter or 170,000 by HBO, according to the registry data collected by this newspaper.

But it must be taken into account that the real income of the Spanish subsidiaries of these companies is much higher than those declared in the Mercantile Registry, since they divert a large part of that turnover to companies in countries such as Ireland, the Netherlands or Luxembourg to lighten their tax bill.

In other words, the real income per employee is much higher than the declared one.

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This high profitability per employee is influenced by the short workforce of these companies because their technology-based activity does not require many workers.

Nor do they resist comparison with the salaries paid by traditional technology companies operating in Spain.

Thus, Telefónica Spain pays an average gross annual salary of 31,328 euros to its 23,091 employees;

The 5,456 workers of Orange Spain receive an average salary of 39,589 euros;

Vodafone Spain, with a staff of 4,574 people, reaches 45,693 euros;

and MásMóvil, the one that pays the best among the operators, rises to 61,485 euros for 875 workers, according to the 2019 corporate reports (except Orange, which corresponds to 2018).

More representative than the salary is the average cost for the company per worker. The range in this case ranges from 94,356 euros per year faced by Amazon Online (the subsidiary dedicated to the sale of advertising) to 244,518 euros for Netflix.

Working in one of the technological giants is a job luxury available to few. Facebook, with a workforce in Spain of 56 employees, is the one that pays the best, with an average gross salary per worker of 205,000 euros per year, although that figure is inflated, because it concentrates the highest emoluments in the top management. The second largest technology company that pays the best in Spain is Netflix through its subsidiary Los Gatos Entertainment España. His spending on salaries in 2019 was only 2.6 million euros. But distributed among a very small staff - of only 13 people - it is an average salary of almost 200,000 euros.

The salary differences according to the position they occupy are enormous, so that not all workers can be considered equally. Thus, a Google marketing director can earn between 46,000 and 119,000 euros; a software developer between 50,000 and 74,000 euros, while a customer service employee charges between 15,000 and 17,000 euros, according to the job search portal Glassdoor, which collects data from the payroll that employees share.

And then there is another abyss. The one that separates the white-collar technology workers from those who deal with the more physical — and less technical — tasks such as parcel delivery. Thus, the Amazon logistics subsidiary (Amazon Spain Fulfillment), which employs 3,901 workers in warehouse and delivery functions, essentially offers a lower salary far from the heights of their peers behind the computer: 26,000 euros gross per year, with a turnover annual per employee of 85,000 euros, well below its technological subsidiaries (Amazon Spain Services, Amazon Web Services and Amazon Online Spain).

The salaries paid by technology companies in Spain are stupendous, but they pale when compared to what the same professionals earn in the United States, the country of origin of all these firms.

An American employee in the same position earns between double and triple that of one who carries out his work in Spain.

Of course, even above the aversion that large US technology companies have to pay taxes, is their rejection of the unionization of workers.

The few protests from their staff have nothing to do with their salary or working conditions.

The failure of a union to establish itself among Amazon workers in Alabama is just one sign that organizing is not a priority for Amazon employees.