After so many disagreements with the employers in recent months, the Ministry of Labor has seen the opportunity and is betting heavily on reaching an agreement with all social agents to increase the interprofessional minimum wage. The initiative of the CEOE, which was the first to put a proposal on the table, has paved the way, and as things stand, Labor is convinced that an agreement is possible and they will try to close it next Monday.
Last week, Labor already pointed out that the increase in the current SMI, located at 1,080 euros, could move around 4%. It would be an intermediate figure between the 3% proposed by the employers, with the option to increase depending on inflation, and the 5% that yesterday the general secretary of CC.OO., Unai Sordo, established as a minimum. A margin in which the Ministry is working to achieve a consensus with unions and employers. Specifically, Work is based on two premises. One, that the equivalence with 60% of the average salary be maintained, an objective achieved this year and that we want to maintain; and the second, that there is no loss of purchasing power.
To maintain this purchasing power, one variable may be the increase in salaries established by collective agreements, which in the first ten months of the year are at an increase of 3.5%. But the same criterion as pensions could also be applied, the average interannual inflation from December to November, which stands at 3.8%.
The second vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, opted yesterday for this second option as a minimum. She stated that 3.8% “is the minimum, because the inflation crisis is real. We have to compensate for the loss of purchasing power.”
In this area, the Government sets 60% of the average salary as the starting point, leaving the door open to exceeding this figure, although making it conditional on it being achieved through an agreement. Let us remember that setting the SMI is the power of the Government, which only has to consult in advance with the social agents. But the possibility of achieving a three-way consensus is very attractive, especially when Labor considers that having the CEOE in this agreement would mean the employers’ acceptance of previous increases in the SMI, which the business owners opposed.
