Between 2014 and 2022 in Iceland, there was a steady increase in average monthly earnings. While the mean income was 563,000 Icelandic Krona in 2014, it rose to 871,000 Krona in 2022, showing an increase of 54 percent over these nine years.

Among all occupational groups in Iceland, men have higher average wages than women. Managers was the occupational group with the highest average earnings in 2022, with men earning around 1.3 million Icelandic krona per month, compared to women's 1.1 million. Elementary occupations was the group with the lowest average earnings, with men and women earning 480,000 and 480,000 Icelandic krona per month, respectively. There is a significant income gap between the genders in Iceland.

Key information about Iceland Household Income per Capita

• Iceland Annual Household Income per Capita reached 61,901.130 USD in Dec 2022, compared with the previous value of 60,523.130 USD in Dec 2021.
• Iceland Annual Household Income per Capita data is updated yearly, available from Dec 1990 to Dec 2022, with an averaged value of 36,152.955 USD.
• The data reached an all-time high of 71,650.752 USD in Dec 2007 and a record low of 18,156.928 USD in Dec 1994.
• In the latest reports, Retail Sales of Iceland grew 9.708 % YoY in Apr 2023.

CEIC converts Annual Household Income per Capita into USD. Statistics Iceland provides Average Household Income per Capita in local currency. The Central Bank of Iceland average market exchange rate is used for currency conversions.

In Iceland, people working in the financial and insurance industry had the highest average wages in 2022, earning more than one million Icelandic krona per month. The electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning industry had the second highest average wages. With short of 530,000 Icelandic krona per month, the accommodation and food industry had the lowest average wages in Iceland in 2022.

Between 2014 and 2022 in Iceland, men earned more than women. Whereas the average wage in the country has increased steadily over the past six years for both genders, men earn over 120,000 Icelandic Krona (ISK) more than women. The average earnings of Icelandic men was 932,000 Icelandic Krona in 2022 compared to 625,000 in 2014. For women, the mean income was 808,000 Icelandic Krona in 2022 and 492,000 in 2014.

In Iceland, there is a significant income gap between men and women. Even though the average income of both sexes increased steadily from 2008 to 2021, men have consistently earned around 500 Icelandic Krona more than women every hour. Whereas Icelandic men earned over 4,100 Krona per hour in 2021 compared to 2,110 in 2008, the numbers were respectively close to 3,700 and 1,680 for women, showing that the income gap in Iceland was almost just as high in 2021 as it was 13 years earlier.

The public sector - central government was the sector with the highest mean wages in Iceland in 2022, 776,000 and 708,000 Icelandic krona per month for men and women, respectively. While men working in the private sector earned more than men in the local government, women in local government had higher average earnings than women in the private sector. There is a significant income gap between the genders in Iceland.

The national minimum wage per month in Spain increased steadily over the last years. The minimum monthly wage grew by about 89 percent from 2008 to 2024, with salaries increasing from 600 euros a month to 1,134 euros a month in 2023. In 2019, the Socialist government of Spain passed a decree by which the national minimum wage would be given a boost of 164 euros, therefore making it stand at 900 euros per month as of that year, the largest increase to date.

Salaries in Spain

Along with the monthly wage, the national minimum daily wage also grew consistently over the past years, with the gross minimum standing at 37.8 euros a day in 2024 relative to 20 euros a day in 2008. Annual wages in Spain have however not followed this trend and fluctuated greatly during the same period. The highest average wage registered in Spain took place in 2009, year in which the mean salary amounted to over 30,000 euros a year after a period of ongoing growth. Spanish salaries however initiated a downtrend that prompted the average worker to earn approximately 29,113 thousand euros a year in 2022.

Salaries in Europe

Iceland ranked as the European country that featured the highest salaries in 2022, with an average wage of approximately 79,473 euros a year. Luxembourg and Switzerland followed second and third, with average salaries of 78,000 and 73,000 a year, respectively. In terms of growth, Portugal ranked as the country that saw the lowest decrease in salaries in 2022 compared to the previous year, with a development of -0.2 percent more relative to 2021, during that year, no European country registered an increase in real wages.

The income level in Iceland generally correlates with educational levels across the country; the higher the educational level, the higher the average income. In 2020, people with a doctoral degree or an equivalent education had the highest average income in Iceland, earning 13.8 million Icelandic Krona on average. In contrast, people with a basic educational only earned 5.2 million Icelandic Krona on average in 2020.

Although Iceland was the first country in the world to enforce equal pay for men and women, and despite Iceland being one of the top places in the world to work for women, a gender pay gap still existed in 2022. That year, the gender pay gap favoring the men was the highest among directors and chief executives. On the other hand, female senior government officials received almost the same monthly salary as their male counterparts.

In 2023, Iceland had the highest annual average net earnings among single persons without children earning 100 percent of the average earnings in the Nordic countries, with approximately 53,900 euros annually. Meanwhile, Sweden and Finland had the lowest average earnings in the region with 34,000 and 36,000 euros annually, respectively. Average earnings in the Nordic countries are significantly higher than the EU average.

The median hourly earnings for full-time employees in the United Kingdom was 18.72 British pounds in 2024, compared with 17.48 pounds in the previous year. At the start of this provided time period, in 1997, the average hourly wage in the UK was 7.92 pounds per hour, rising to more than ten pounds per hour by 2003, and above 15 pounds per hour by 2020. Minimum and living wage in the UK In the United Kingdom, employers are expected to pay their employees a minimum wage that is determined by how old they are. Under 18s for example, had a minimum wage of 5.28 British pounds in 2023, with the figure increasing to 7.49 pounds those aged 18 to 20, 10.18 for 21 to 22 year old's, and 10.42 for those aged 23 and over. There is also a voluntarily paid living Wage that employers can choose to pay their workers. For the 2023/24 financial year this was twelve pounds an hour, rising to 13.15 pounds an hour for workers based in London. Icelandic the highest earners in Europe Iceland had the highest average annual wage in the Europe in 2022 at around 79,500 U.S dollars. This was followed by Luxembourg at 78,300 dollars, Switzerland at 72,990 and Belgium at 64,850 dollars. The United Kingdom’s average annual wage amounted to around 53,985 U.S dollars in the same year. In this year, the country with the lowest annual salary in Europe was Greece, at 25,980 pounds per year.

Average net earnings in the European Union was 26,136 Euros for a single person with no children in 2022, while for a couple with children who both worked it was 55,573 Euros. Among countries in Europe, Switzerland was the country with the highest net earnings in 2022, followed by Iceland, Luxembourg, and Norway. The lowest net earnings were found in Bulgaria and Romania, where a single person without children earned on average less than 9,000 Euros in 2022.

Romania was forecast to have the highest real salary increase in the last quarter of 2024 of the 34 countries included. The salary increase in the European country was forecast to reach 17 percent. Croatia and Serbia followed behind. On the other hand, Iceland and Japan were forecast to have a real wage growth of only 1.1 percent.

As of 2021, the European countries who had the greatest share of their national income taken by the top 10 percent of earners were Turkey, Russia, and Armenia, with high earners in these countries taking home around half of all income. By contrast, the top decile in Slovakia, Iceland, and the Netherlands took home a share of national income almost half as large, at between 26 and 29 percent. On average, the top 10 percent in Europe took home over a third of national income, while the bottom half earned less than a fifth.