Working and not making ends meet: the failure we cannot normalize

They had promised us that if we studied, worked, and did things "right," we would get ahead. That we would live with a certain security. But this promise was broken a long time ago. And today, in the Balearic Islands, we are no longer just talking about precariousness: we are talking about generalized impoverishment.

This May 1st arrives with an uncomfortable reality: working no longer guarantees a dignified life. And it doesn't just affect the most vulnerable, but also a middle class that is being dragged down, trapped between stagnant wages and a rising cost of living.

The word that explains it all is the rising cost. Families are dedicating up to 65% of their income to basic needs, and housing has become the main driver of inequality: rent has skyrocketed by 77.6% in a decade. This is the core of the problem: it's not that people don't work, nor that there isn't work. It's that working is no longer enough.

The social divide is increasingly evident: those who live off their work, both employees and self-employed, and those who live off the work of others. The majority lose purchasing power year after year; a minority accumulates income and wealth at a rapid pace.

Executives of large companies earn more than 100 times the average salary of their workers, and this gap continues to grow: in 2025, the salaries of general directors increased 20 times faster than those of workers.

At the same time and intimately linked to this, 15% of property sales in the Balearic Islands are carried out by companies or legal entities, one of the highest percentages in the Spanish State. Furthermore, the accumulation of properties grows among those who already have wealth, while access to ownership for middle-income households becomes more difficult. The illusion of grandparents who work their whole lives and can buy a house is a thing of the past.

This is not just inequality, it's a change of model. A model where wealth is increasingly concentrated, in a more speculative and unproductive way, while the value of labor is diluted. And in the Balearic Islands, this is exacerbated by a specific reality: the tourist monoculture, which pressures housing prices, seasonalizes employment, and concentrates profits in a few hands.

It is no coincidence to have record occupancy and, at the same time, people who cannot pay rent. Nor that the economy grows while the working poor increase. It is not a temporary dysfunction: it is the result of a model that prioritizes volume over well-being.

Therefore, talking about salaries is essential but insufficient. We need a minimum wage adapted to the reality of the Islands and capable of compensating for the cost of living. But, above all, we need to be able to decide it.

Because the island minimum wage is not just an economic issue, but a democratic one. Setting it from a centralist reality ignores an evidence: living here is much more expensive. When the cost of living is structurally higher, a uniform minimum wage is not neutral, it is profoundly unjust.

The data makes it clear: in 2023 the average gross annual salary was €24,313 in 2023 (with 10% below 2/3 of this figure), while, according to CCOO, covering basic needs costs €27,066.65 in Mallorca, a figure that soars to €34,585.36 in Ibiza or €36,850.79 in Formentera. Working and not getting by: this is the central contradiction.

A proper minimum wage would allow us to start correcting this distortion: adapting salaries to the island reality and ensuring that work serves to live. And it also has a ripple effect: when the floor rises, everything rises. It is not just a social measure, it is an economic transformation tool.

Because it is also this: a matter of productive model. Betting on higher salaries is betting on an economy that does not compete on precariousness, but on quality. It is demanding more value, more responsibility, and less dependence on low costs.

It is not just about distributing better, but about deciding better.

In short, we need sovereignty to guarantee dignity. Because what is at stake is not just the economy, it is the societal model. Either we continue to accept a reality where working is not enough and inequality grows, or we assume that this is not inevitable.

Because it is not.

It is a consequence of decisions. And, therefore, it can only be reversed with decisions.

And the first is to stop normalizing failure.