The Official State Gazette (BOE) published this Thursday the extra salary increase approved this Tuesday by the Council of Ministers.
The increase for public workers will be 0.5% with retroactive effects from January 2023. This will be noticeable starting this month of October and is added to the fixed salary increase of 2.5% that has already been applied this anus. Several doubts arise with the decision: what will it translate into payrolls? To whom it corresponds?
The main reason for the increase is to compensate for the loss of purchasing power due to inflation. Specifically, the measure is applied upon compliance with one of the clauses agreed upon with the unions in the framework agreement for the renewal of the administration (Framework agreement for a 21st century administration).
This established that public employees would receive extra remuneration if the sum of the Harmonized CPI (IPCA) for September 2022 and the CPI advanced by the INE for the month of September 2023 was greater than 6%. Last year, September recorded an IPCA of 5.5%. This 2023, September reached the CPI of 3.2%. The sum gives a result of 8.7% and gives the green light to that half-point increase.
The measure will affect around 3.5 million people who will benefit from the salary update in all administrations. This group also includes lawyers from the Administration of Justice, in addition to judges and prosecutors. For the state, the measure will cost 791 million euros.
Civil servants will see an increase of 180 euros in the annual payroll, according to calculations by the Ministry of Finance and Public Service.
The approval now is not the only possible increase in the coming months. Civil servants can still benefit from another salary increase, although this would be collected in the first months of 2024. The possible increase would also be 0.5% with retroactive effects from January 2023, although it will be perceived in 2024.
This time, the increase will be paid only if Spanish GDP growth this year reaches 2.1%. Organizations such as the European Commission, the IMF, the OECD, Airef or the Bank of Spain agree that this figure will be reached. However, it remains to be seen how the economic slowdown in the second half of the year affects economic growth.
