The Ministry of Labor is preparing a new increase in the inter-professional minimum wage (SMI), work on which will begin this Tuesday with the meeting of the consultative commission. The group of experts will prepare a recommendation to the department of Yolanda Díaz, however, 5% has already been imposed on the horizon of the negotiators, given that this is the figure that CCOO and UGT have set recently although it is not has not been formally presented. could already influence the final decision envisaged by Moncloa. The negotiation table has not yet been convened, at which the employers’ organization will also be present, even if the unions are leaning towards an increase similar to that of 2024, which would increase the minimum remuneration to 1,190 euros gross per month which would almost triple the inflation accumulated since the start of the year.
The second vice-president of the Government and responsible for this portfolio avoided putting forward the amount that she would use as a starting point in the dialogue with social agents, not knowing the range that the report will define, but she limited to 60% of the average salary which it includes the European Social Charter and which its ministry considers reached in 2023, it would therefore be sufficient to update the figure according to salaries. These they increased by 3.82% on average in Octoberaccording to data from the agreements negotiated this year, while the inflation accumulated last month was 2.1%, according to the INE and the interannual rate of 1.8%; a value which would be almost tripled by the increase proposed by the unions.
This increase would continue the path started in 2018 with the arrival of Pedro Sánchez at the La Moncloa Palace, when the SMI increased by 22% to reach 900 euros per month after reaching an agreement with Podemos shortly after the motion of censure. Since then, there have been five other consecutive increases for which everything indicates that Another will be added in 2025while an increase of 57% would accumulate if the minister responded to the demands expressed by workers’ representatives and Add 56.7 euros to each of these 14 payments.
It is common for CCOO and UGT to defend common positions at the negotiation tables and transmit common proposals to the Executive. But last year, this negotiating table highlighted some differences between the organizations, even if both defended the 5% ultimately applied. Pepe Álvarez’s union does not share the method used by the group of experts -directly chosen by the Labor Party- to determine the average salary. The aforementioned commission uses the salary structure survey and convention statistics, but the UGT understood that sources such as tax or social security were more current and gave a higher figure. On the other hand, the one led by Unai Sordo was comfortable with the formula used since a member of his economic cabinet participated in its design, so he did not enter into the debate on whether the aforementioned threshold of 60% had been reached or not.
The workers’ commissions are focusing this negotiation with two priorities on the roadmap: maintaining purchasing power and the new formulation of the rule which regulates the minimum wage. This is how he explains it to el.Economista.es Raúl Olmos, general secretary of CCOO Trade Union Action. “It is necessary that we address the regulation of the SMI because we encounter many problems with the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court, with which we do not agree and which establishes that all remuneration must be taken into account in the calculation of the salary.” Following this ruling, all supplements are valued to determine whether or not a worker receives the minimum wage, even if he or she receives them for notions unrelated to time such as languages spoken or level of responsibility.
This revision of the law was part of the agreement reached with the Ministry of Labor to implement the latest increase, but there has been no further news of it, the emphasis being on reducing the working day. On the union side, they emphasize the transposition of the minimum wage directive as the ideal debate to address this issue, even if they admit to not knowing what the government’s plans are in this regard.
The CEOE and Cepyme, for their part, are waiting to know what proposal Díaz will share with them once the report has been evaluated. Antonio Garamendi’s men led negotiations last winter until propose an increase of between 3% and 4%in accordance with what was agreed in the Agreement on Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC) which guides the agreements. The employers’ organizations have set two conditions to support this salary increase: bonuses for agricultural contributions and revision of the deindexation lawgiven that its current wording prevents companies from transferring these increases from existing contracts to the public sector. Díaz’s department recognized that there was a problem on this second point and tried to convince the Ministry of Finance to modify the law approved in the context of the financial crisis, but without success.
In this matter, the Government is obliged to consult the social agents, even if it must not respect their objections. Government sources explain that they will be summoned after receiving the report, although it remains to be seen whether the range proposed by the experts will be made public, given that in 2024 the ministry did not share it during his proposals to convince both parties. negotiation table.
Just an increase supported by CEOE
The increases made by the government during this legislature and the last legislature occurred, for the most part, without the support of employers’ organizations. The Ministry of Labor alone reached an agreement with CEOE in 2020in the context of the pandemic, when employers accepted an increase of 5.5% to prevent the SMI from rising to 1,000 euros gross per month; a figure he reached two years later. These increases occurred while at the same time social contributions were increased as part of the reform of the public pension system promoted by the current governor of the Bank of Spain, José Luis Escriva. A set of measures that the organization described as “interference”, such as the future reduction of working hours or the modification of the prevalence of agreements, in addition to questioning whether this issue was a priority faced with maintaining the level of employment in the price crisis.
