The highest average retirement pension in regional terms, which is that of the Basque Country, with 1.458.98 euros, is 361.95 euros higher than that of the Balearic Islands, which is the sixth lowest, according to data from the latest monthly pension payroll of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration for the month of June.
This means that a Basque pensioner lives on a pension that is almost 25% higher than one from the islands and reveals that, at a time when Spain is tackling a new reform of the public pension system, differences persist in this area, partly reflecting those that exist in the labour market.
1,097 euros, the average in the Balearic Islands
This is the average pay that a resident of the islands receives when they retire from the labour market.
Differentiating factors
Elements related to demographics, the labour market or salaries mark this gap between regions.
The highest and lowest pensions
The highest pensions are paid in the Basque Country and the lowest in Extremadura.
Thus, the same statistics indicated that the differences at the general level were reduced. The difference between the highest (Basque Country) and the lowest (Extremadura) was around 47%. To find a similar figure, one would have to go back 25 years, to 1996, when the percentage gap was only one and a half points higher than it is today, namely 49.43%. In this quarter of a century, retirement pensions have risen steadily, while the gap between regions has widened, reaching a peak of almost 60 % in 2004, when the difference between the highest and the lowest was almost 60%. As various reports on this subject have shown, the Spanish pension system does not generate any kind of territorial discrimination but rather incorporates elements of solidarity, although these cannot fully compensate for previous differentiating factors related to demographics, the labour market or wages. In short, the pension gap continues to close slowly.