The review of the Interprofessional Minimum Wage (SMI) has inaugurated this Thursday the social dialogue between the Government, employers and unions during the new legislature. The different proposals are not excessively disparate and, among them, the one proposed by the Ministry of Labor is in the middle: a 4% increase so that the lowest salaries do not lose purchasing power.
The Secretary of State for Labor himself, Joaquín Pérez Rey, has explained that Labor’s intention in this first meeting has been to “listen carefully” to the social agents and “try to reach a consensus on the figures.” His department wants to defend two premises: “minimum wages must not lose purchasing power” and “the SMI must be placed at 60% of the average salary.” On this basis, “there is room” to accept proposals and “form an opinion,” he indicated.
The 4% increase defended by the Government contrasts with that proposed last week by the CEOE, which was ahead of the rest of the interlocutors by proposing an increase of 3%. This increase responds to the Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC) of May, in which a salary increase of 3% is recommended in 2024 and 2025, with the possibility of applying an additional increase if inflation exceeds these limits.
The CEOE has also been proactive today, proposing that public contracts be revised upwards in the same proportion as the SMI. “It was a meeting in which the parties showed their positions” and “the need on our part to index public contracts to the SMI, with the support of the unions, was expressed,” CEOE sources stated at the end of the meeting. . Entrepreneurs have also been represented by Cepyme’s small and medium-sized companies.
Fernando Luján, member of the UGT confederal executive, explained after the meeting that “we have not come to talk about percentages, but about parameters and objectives.” The unions, in favor of increases of 5% in the SMI, consider, like Labor, that the objective should be to maintain purchasing power and reach 60% of the average salary, on the amount of which there is no consensus. “We hope that the agreement will arrive soon,” he added.
The confederal secretary of Trade Union Action of CCOO, María Cruz Vicente, agreed with the UGT’s demand to reach 60% of the average salary and not lose purchasing power, but was more explicit in the request for increases in the SMI of at least 5% . “The increase in the prices of basic products in the shopping basket has been more than 5% and minimum wages are fed by that shopping basket,” so the increase should be that percentage.
This Thursday, the general secretary of CCOO, Unai Sordo, assured that the SMI should rise at the rate at which average salaries increased in the second quarter, 5.2%.
The unions do not take a bad view of the CEOE’s proposal to also review public contracts upwards to the extent that, as Vicente pointed out, many companies that work with the administration and pay the SMI do not have a recognized increase that would give them room to raise the salaries.
For the department led by Yolanda Díaz, the 4% increase would adhere precisely to what was agreed in the AENC and would imply raising the minimum wage from the current 1,080 euros in fourteen payments to 1,123.2 euros. The 3% increase proposed by the CEOE would instead set the remuneration at 1,112 euros, while a 5% increase as defended by the unions would place the amount at 1,134 euros.
Despite the lack of agreement on the average salary, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) reported last Friday that in 2022 it was 2,128 euros per month in gross terms. 60% of that amount would be equivalent to about 1,277 euros per month and could serve as a reference in the new negotiation between social agents.
The consensus between different organizations and analysts prepared by Funcas predicts that inflation will close this year at around 3.7%. For now, contributory pensions will rise by 3.8% according to the new automatic review mechanism established at the end of 2021. For Labor, the floor for the increase in the minimum wage is inflation.
The meeting lasted about three hours and the participants agreed to meet again on December 11 to set a review percentage. The SMI ultimately depends on the Government, which could decree its revaluation without the need for agreement with the social agents.
