Carolina, maçonne colombienne en Espagne, compare deux métiers : « Une coiffeuse gagne 1 000 euros par mois ; dans le bâtiment, on peut gagner 100 euros par jour »
Carolina’s Case for Construction: Looking Beyond Traditional Career Choices
A career change built on experience
Carolina spent more than two decades working in information technology, but construction had long held her interest. After doing renovation work in her spare time, the Colombian woman living in Spain decided to learn tiling more formally. She enrolled in a technical course and, after completing it, secured a first assignment tiling a commercial premises in Madrid. Her story is not simply about leaving one job for another; it is about taking an interest seriously enough to turn it into a skill.
In a video shared by the account Ella Construye, Carolina offered a comparison that made people pay attention: a hairdresser might earn €1,000 a month, she said, while tiling could bring in €100 a day. The point she wanted to make was that women looking for work should consider construction alongside occupations they are more commonly encouraged to pursue.
The figures are memorable, but they are Carolina’s example—not a verified average wage for either profession. They are most useful as an invitation to ask a better question: what opportunities might someone miss if they rule out a trade before learning what it involves?
Why the pay comparison needs care
A daily amount and a monthly wage do not describe the same thing. At €100 for each of 20 paid working days, the arithmetic gives €2,000 for that month. But that calculation assumes all 20 days are available and paid at the stated rate. It says nothing by itself about whether the figure is an employee’s wage, a self-employed worker’s charge, or an amount before work-related expenses.
The other side of the comparison needs context too. A hairdresser’s earnings depend on working hours and employment arrangements; Carolina’s €1,000 figure should not be read as what every hairdresser in Spain earns. For a full-time employee, it is also important to distinguish gross pay from take-home pay and to compare like periods. Spain’s statutory minimum for 2026 is €1,221 gross per month in 14 payments, or €17,094 annually, for a full-time worker. A lower monthly figure cannot be treated as a general full-time gross salary without further explanation.
None of this takes away from Carolina’s argument. Skilled tiling may offer an attractive way to earn a living. It does mean that anyone weighing two careers should look beyond a striking daily rate. Reliable work, paid time off, physical demands, training and the conditions of a particular job all matter to the decision.
What drew Carolina to tiling
Carolina did not present construction as work that anyone can master overnight. She sought training because she wanted to understand the technical side and do the job properly. In her account, modern tools can make some of the hardest tasks easier, while accurate methods and practical knowledge remain essential. She encouraged experienced workers, as well as newcomers, to keep improving their techniques.
Her first reported professional assignment gives that message a concrete shape. Tiling a premises in Madrid required more than enthusiasm: it was a chance to put newly learned skills to use on a real job. The reporting does not establish how much she earned from that assignment or what she earns over a typical month, so it would be misleading to treat her example as proof of a guaranteed income.
What stands out is the route she took. She had an established career in another field, recognised a lasting interest, trained for the work and then found an opportunity to practise it professionally. For someone contemplating a change, that is a more grounded lesson than the suggestion that one trade automatically pays twice as much as another.
The barrier of expectation
Carolina argues that women can overlook building trades because familiar career suggestions tend to point them toward fields such as hairdressing, aesthetics or nursing. Her message is not that those professions lack value. It is that a woman should be able to consider tiling, masonry or another construction trade without assuming the work is reserved for men.
The workforce figures show why that message still resonates. In August 2026, women accounted for 146,590 of Spain’s construction-sector Social Security affiliates, or 9.9% of the total, according to the Construction Labour Foundation’s observatory. That is a measure of the sector as a whole, not a count of women working specifically as tilers or on building sites. The observatory also cautions that a change in industry classification affects year-on-year comparisons.
Numbers cannot tell us what every individual workplace feels like. They do, however, show that women remain a minority in the sector. When few people in a trade look like you, the question may never be whether you could learn it; the possibility may simply not occur to you. Carolina’s visibility helps put that possibility in view.
Choosing a trade with open eyes
Construction is not an easy answer to every career concern. A person interested in tiling needs to learn the techniques, understand the demands of the work and assess actual opportunities where they live. The headline figure of €100 a day is a starting point for questions, not a promise to someone entering the trade. Carolina’s own decision to take a course underlines the importance she places on preparation.
It also helps to separate enthusiasm for a profession from a comparison that could undervalue another. Hairdressing takes skill, practice and care for clients. Tiling calls for a different set of skills. The more useful comparison is not which occupation deserves greater respect, but which kind of work suits a person’s interests and offers workable conditions in their circumstances.
Carolina’s story makes a modest but important case: career choices become wider when people can explore them without a gender label attached. She found a way from an established IT career to her first professional tiling project. Her pay example sparked the conversation, but her insistence on training—and on seeing construction as a genuine option for women—is what gives the story its lasting weight.
Questions fréquentes en français
|
Question |
Réponse |
|
Question |
Réponse |
|
1. Qui est Carolina ? |
C’est une Colombienne travaillant en Espagne, issue du secteur informatique, qui s’est formée au carrelage. |
|
2. Quel était son métier auparavant ? |
Elle dit avoir travaillé plus de vingt ans dans l’informatique. |
|
3. Pourquoi s’est-elle tournée vers le bâtiment ? |
Elle réalisait déjà des rénovations par intérêt personnel et souhaitait acquérir une formation technique pour exercer professionnellement. |
|
4. Quels montants compare-t-elle ? |
Elle évoque €1 000 par mois pour une coiffeuse et €100 par jour pour une activité de carrelage. Il s’agit de son exemple, pas d’une moyenne établie pour chaque métier. |
|
5. €100 par jour équivalent-ils toujours à €2 000 par mois ? |
Non. Ce total suppose 20 journées payées à ce montant ; le revenu réel dépend notamment du nombre de jours travaillés et du statut professionnel. |
|
6. Le chiffre de €1 000 représente-t-il le salaire de toutes les coiffeuses ? |
Non. On ne peut pas en déduire un salaire universel. En Espagne, le salaire minimum légal à temps plein est fixé à €17 094 brut par an en 2026. |
|
7. Carolina a-t-elle déjà réalisé un chantier professionnel ? |
Selon le reportage consacré à sa vidéo, elle a obtenu une première mission de carrelage dans un local commercial à Madrid. |
|
8. Les femmes sont-elles nombreuses dans la construction espagnole ? |
Elles représentaient 9,9% des personnes affiliées au secteur en août 2026, d’après l’Observatoire industriel de la construction. |
|
9. Que dit Carolina de la formation ? |
Elle estime qu’il faut apprendre les techniques correctement et continuer à se perfectionner, y compris lorsqu’on travaille déjà dans le métier. |
|
10. Quelle est son idée principale ? |
Elle souhaite que davantage de femmes envisagent la construction comme une possibilité professionnelle, plutôt que de l’écarter parce qu’elle est traditionnellement associée aux hommes. |
Je suis Pauline Roussel, journaliste culinaire et consultante en arts de la table depuis plus de quinze ans. Diplomee en management de l’hotellerie-restauration a l’Institut Paul Bocuse et ancienne critique gastronomique pour un guide regional Gault&Millau, j’ai explore cuisines de terroir et tables etoilees. Mon travail m’a menee des bistrots parisiens aux auberges familiales italiennes, avec une attention particuliere pour le lien entre gastronomie, voyage et art de recevoir a la maison. Je partage ici mes experiences concretes, mes methodes d’organisation et mes adresses preferees pour aider chacun a cuisiner mieux et accueillir avec confiance.
Story follow-up
- Carte sans contact dans le métro : peut-on vraiment se faire pirater à distance ?
- Gendarmerie de Neufchâtel-en-Bray : pourquoi les trois « N » de sa façade intriguent les amateurs de typographie
- Le TGV fête ses 45 ans : retour sur le record de 574,8 km/h et le conducteur qui l’a vécu aux commandes
- Saint-Priest : un cortège de mariage se solde par 87 verbalisations, près de 11 000 euros d’amendes et 242 points de permis retirés
- Écouter la même chanson en boucle aide-t-il vraiment à se concentrer ? Ce que dit la psychologie de la musique
On the same subject
Carte sans contact dans le métro : peut-on vraiment se faire pirater à distance ?
Gendarmerie de Neufchâtel-en-Bray : pourquoi les trois « N » de sa façade intriguent les amateurs de typographie
Le TGV fête ses 45 ans : retour sur le record de 574,8 km/h et le conducteur qui l’a vécu aux commandes
Saint-Priest : un cortège de mariage se solde par 87 verbalisations, près de 11 000 euros d’amendes et 242 points de permis retirés
Écouter la même chanson en boucle aide-t-il vraiment à se concentrer ? Ce que dit la psychologie de la musique
Haies et arbres près de la clôture du voisin : les distances légales de plantation à respecter pour éviter un litige