La Laguna Mayor Tops Canary Islands Salary List at €91k
Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, mayor of San Cristóbal de La Laguna in Tenerife, is the highest-paid mayor in the Canary Islands with an annual salary exceeding 91,000 euros, surpassing those in larger provincial capitals despite his municipality being the third largest by population.
A city in Tenerife is home to one of Spain's highest-paid mayors, whose annual salary of over 90,000 euros makes him the top earner among all mayors in the Canary Islands. This salary even surpasses those of the mayors in the two provincial capitals, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, which is a surprising fact given the municipality he leads. This information comes from the latest report on Public Administration Salaries (ISPA), compiled by the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Function.
For comparison, José Manuel Bermúdez Esparza, the mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, earns 71,201.07 euros a year. Carolina Darias, who leads the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria City Council, is paid slightly more at 72,828 euros annually, making her the second highest-paid mayor in the archipelago, just behind the top earner.
Neither the former minister nor the Santa Cruz mayor matches the salary of Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, the mayor of San Cristóbal de La Laguna. A member of the PSOE party, Gutiérrez's annual salary is 91,172.48 euros, according to the ISPA 2025 report. He has been leading the La Laguna city council since the 2019 elections and was re-elected in 2023.
At 40 years old (he was 33 when first elected), Gutiérrez is the youngest mayor to lead this city council. He dedicates himself full-time to his mayoral duties and also takes on other organizational roles, including a position on the PSOE Federal Committee, which boosts his political influence nationwide. Luis Yeray Gutiérrez ranks 12th among the highest-paid mayors in Spain.
What makes this particularly notable is that San Cristóbal de La Laguna is only the third largest municipality in the Canary Islands by population, yet it has the highest-paid mayor in the archipelago. Adding to this contrast, despite its mayor's high salary, La Laguna's average annual income is lower than that of the two provincial capitals, according to recent data from the Tax Agency. This highlights a significant difference in how municipal salaries are distributed.
In the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, three more female mayors also earn over 60,000 euros annually.
Across Spain, the report reveals a wide range in mayoral salaries: 2,265 mayors receive no salary for their council work, while 1,513 earn more than the national average of 33,700 euros. This disparity reflects the significant economic differences between Spain's smallest towns and its largest cities.