Eduard Valentin is a bus driver who drove buses in Madrid, but since April of this year he emigrated to Norway to work in the town of Stavanger, with the purpose of saving 24,000 euros in one year. “The difference between Spain and Norway in these four months is only 1,248.35 euros,” he says.
Regarding his salary, he explains that this has been “the best month since I have been here”, thanks to 21.4 overtime hours. He collected 52,081.30 crowns gross and 24.7% taxes were withheld, for being the first year. “I have paid only 24.7% because it is my first year.” “Next year it will be regularized,” he says, and he hopes to move to a bracket of between 28% and 32%.
Within the payroll they pay you for the minutes that you miss and that make you leave late. “I have filled in the time that I finished late in the application,” he details. In the end he was left with 39,053 crowns, which he estimates at “about 3,300, 3,400 euros.” He claims that, with all he has worked for, he expected more money. “I have been disappointed.”
Four months in Spain compared to four in Norway
“I’m going to combine the months of April and May, since here in Norway I collected them both together,” he explains at the beginning of the comparison. On his payroll for those same months in Spain, from when he was still working there, he added 10,667.20 euros. “I had prorated payments,” he clarifies (the extra payments distributed in each month’s payroll).
In Norway, according to his accounts, it reached 11,915.55 euros, although in April he only worked three weeks and was in training, so he could not work overtime. In total, he earned 1,248.35 euros more, 11.7%, and with that figure he asks himself if “it is worth it” to leave “for that amount of money.”
“Rent eats up a large part of your salary”
He believes that one of the big reasons why there is a lack of drivers in Norway is because of the salary. “It is indisputable that the salary is low for the standard of living here in Norway, especially today. The rent eats up a large part of your salary,” he says. For this reason, he says, “at no time do you consider a long-term future,” and people go, share a room, save something and leave.
He also complains that in his company there is no time between one line and the next to stretch his legs or go to the bathroom, and that makes him behave “with stress, with anxiety.” Overtime is offered on the same day and in the middle of the shift. “They should give a little more notice, perhaps one or two days,” he proposes. He sees the fourth complaint the same in any country: “Being the new one, you get the worst shifts.”
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He explains that at the end of July he spent 550 euros for a room “with everything included, water, electricity and internet”, 460 euros for food and 50 for leisure, because he barely goes out. “I drink a Coca-Cola that costs 5 or 6 euros and I go home,” he says about his outings, since he neither drinks nor smokes. With the gym, the cell phone, the pharmacy and the cleaning and personal care products, he spends a total of 1,239 euros per month, and with a salary of about 3,400 he calculates “a saving of approximately 2,000 euros every month.” “Yes, it is true that I personally deprive myself of many things,” he admits.