Catalonia is improving in productivity, but this improvement does not automatically translate into a real perception of well-being for the majority of the population. In 2024, total factor productivity contributed 1.8 points to the growth of Catalan GDP, which grew by 3.5% according to Idescat. In other words: a relevant part of growth no longer comes only from working more hours or accumulating more capital, but from producing better.

The problem is that this macroeconomic improvement coexists with a much less brilliant reality: living remains expensive, especially in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. We work with more technology, more efficiency and greater productive capacity, but, paradoxically, it is becoming increasingly difficult to make ends meet. Wages are rising, yes, but they do not always rise at the same pace as housing, food, energy or basic services. And when the cost of living rises faster than the available margin, productivity ceases to be perceived as an improvement and starts to be seen as a broken promise.

For decades, we have been repeatedly told an almost sacred idea: if the economy grows, society improves. If we produce more, we live better. This narrative has been the pillar of dominant economic thought, assumed as an unquestionable truth by both governments and institutions. But everyday reality is beginning to crack this narrative.

Catalonia —and Europe in general— has increased its productive capacity over recent decades. Companies are more efficient, technology makes it possible to do more with less, and GDP continues to grow in overall terms. However, this improvement is not reflected with the same intensity in the daily life of most of the population. Citizens do not live off GDP: they live off the salary they have left after paying rent, food, electricity, transport, taxes and debts.

This is where the data hurt. The average gross annual salary in Catalonia was 29,978.69 euros in 2023, 4.2% more than the previous year. But the median salary —more representative of the ordinary worker, because it is not so distorted by high salaries— was 25,826.11 euros per year. This is equivalent to around 2,152 euros gross per month in twelve payments, before taxes and social contributions.

The contrast with the cost of living is stark. According to the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, the metropolitan reference salary —that is, the salary needed to cover a basic basket and live with dignity— stood in 2024 at an average of 1,527.83 euros net per month per adult. But for a single person in the city of Barcelona, the threshold rises to 1,886.14 euros per month, and for a single person with children it reaches 2,719.28 euros.

This means that a significant part of the population does not need “luxuries” to struggle financially: it only needs to pay for normal life. And this is the key point of the article. The problem is not that people live beyond their means; often, it is that real means have fallen below the ordinary cost of living.

Housing is the great black hole. In the city of Barcelona, the annual average rent of regular contracts was 1,134.61 euros per month in 2025. By district, Eixample reached an average of 1,283.96 euros per month, Gràcia 1,082.33 euros, Sant Martí 1,094 euros and Sarrià-Sant Gervasi 1,603.74 euros. Even Nou Barris, the district with the lowest average, stood at 796.21 euros per month.

These figures explain why so many people feel that their salary evaporates. If a person earns close to the Catalan median salary and has to live alone in rented accommodation in Barcelona, housing can absorb a disproportionate part of their net salary. And if we add food, utilities, transport, phone bills, insurance and taxes, savings are reduced to the bare minimum. It is not a feeling: it is arithmetic.

Inflation adds a second layer of pressure. In 2025, the annual average CPI in Catalonia grew by 2.4%, but the group covering housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels increased by an annual average of 4.8%. In December 2025, Catalan year-on-year CPI was 2.5%, with housing and restaurants/hotels among the most inflationary groups, both at 4.1%.

Therefore, the problem is not only how much wages rise, but what happens to the items you cannot stop paying for. If the basic elements that sustain everyday life rise more, real disposable income falls even if nominal wages increase. It is the difference between “earning more” and “living better”. And today this difference is at the heart of the discomfort.

The fiscal trap: paying more without earning more

A factor that is often invisible, but decisive, is added to this reality: taxation. With inflation, income may increase in nominal terms, but this does not imply a real improvement in purchasing power. Even so, taxes can increase. This is what is known as “fiscal drag”: a silent rise in the tax burden when tax brackets and allowances are not fully adjusted to inflation.

In Spain, this dynamic coexists with tax revenues at record highs. In 2025, tax revenues reached 325.356 billion euros, 10.4% more than in 2024, according to the Tax Agency. The agency attributes the increase to the rise in tax bases and to the impact of regulatory and management measures.

The problem is that, for ordinary citizens, this macroeconomic explanation translates into a very specific experience: paying more VAT because prices are higher, paying more personal income tax if wages rise nominally, and seeing how part of any salary improvement is absorbed before it reaches the current account. The tax system acts like a sponge: it retains part of the increase before it can become well-being.

The result is an apparent paradox: wages may rise, but the available margin shrinks. And when this happens, citizens do not perceive progress, but tightening. They do not see “growth”; they see that every month they need more money to maintain the same standard of living.

In parallel, the current economic model tends to concentrate the value generated in the hands of actors with a greater capacity to capture rents: large corporations, financial sectors, asset owners and structures with influence over decision-making centres. This phenomenon has less to do with producing more than with better controlling economic flows. This is where productivity can become a trap: if the additional value is not distributed better, society produces more, but the majority does not live proportionally better.

Productivity without well-being: the great mistake

The great conceptual mistake is to confuse productivity with well-being. Productivity measures how much we produce with the resources available. Well-being measures how we live. And today these two indicators no longer necessarily move forward together.

We can have more efficient companies, rising GDP, more technology and more automation, but this does not guarantee that a family can pay reasonable rent, save money, have children or face an unexpected expense without going into debt. Productive improvement only becomes social progress when it reaches wages, available time, the cost of housing, the capacity to save and economic security.

In fact, this disconnect becomes evident in everyday life: growing difficulties in accessing housing, less capacity to save, dependence on credit and a widespread feeling of economic uncertainty. Wealth is created, but it is not always distributed in a balanced way. When citizens perceive that they live worse, it is not an illusion or an error of perception: it is a clear symptom that the system prioritises quantitative growth, penalises labour income and rewards capital, asset ownership and speculation.

The uncomfortable question is inevitable: what is the point of producing more if the majority cannot live better? What sense does it make to celebrate productivity if housing swallows up wages? What kind of prosperity is it that increases tax revenues, profits and GDP, but leaves citizens with less real margin?

The answer involves rethinking the foundations of the system: how wealth is distributed, what role wages play within the economy, how the abusive weight of housing on labour income is limited, what level of tax pressure is sustainable and, above all, what we understand by prosperity in the twenty-first century. Because productivity, by itself, does not fill the fridge, does not pay the rent and does not guarantee a dignified life. It can be a formidable tool for progress. But if it does not translate into sufficient wages, affordable prices and life stability, it ceases to be a promise of well-being and becomes a perfectly measurable trap.

11Onze is the community fintech of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the app El Canut for Android or iOS and join the revolution!