It is the second transformation of the pension system in this legislature. If the first, closed in 2021 with the consensus of all social agents, is remembered for having linked retirement to inflation, this second part is more delicate. It is time to square the accounts and ensure the sustainability of the pension system, while maintaining all rights and adding new ones. An exercise that can only be done with an increase in income. The Ministry of Inclusion and Social Security defends that this reform shields the revaluation of pensions, which modernizes the system and increases income, and acts especially on the contributions of the highest incomes.
A package of seven measures with transformative capacity that will be discussed on Monday at a second meeting of the dialogue table and that Escrivá will present to the Toledo Pact commission on Wednesday. They are the adjustment of the calculation period, three initiatives to increase income and three more to improve benefits, points that we will detail.
Maximum bases rise. It is about removing the limit, that is, increasing the current limit from which it is no longer quoted (which was 4,495 euros per month in 2023). It is one of the elements to increase the income of the system. In this way, the maximum bases are raised, in a gradual process between 2024 and 2050. A fixed amount of 1.2 percentage points will be added to the annual amount of the CPI. In turn, the maximum pensions will be revalued each year with an additional increase of 0.115 cumulative percentage points until 2050. From 2050 and until 2065 there will be additional increases.
Solidarity fee. A solidarity quota is established for the part of the salary that is not currently contributing because it exceeds the contribution limit. The quota will be 1% in 2025 and will increase at a rate of 0.25 points per year, until it reaches 6% in 2045. It does not apply to the whole salary, but only to the part that exceeds the maximum contribution limit.
Intergenerational Equity Mechanism. The anticipated effort of this mechanism designed to have a reserve cushion to face spending tensions is doubled. If a contribution of 0.6 points had been set (0.5% paid by the company and 0.1% paid by the worker), it will now go to 1.2 percentage points in 2029 (with the same proportion of distribution between company and employee share). The rate of increase will be one tenth per year and the aim is to strengthen the system during the years when there may be more tension due to the baby boom generation.
Improvement of minimum pensions. A policy of convergence of the minimum contributory pensions is established to ensure that they converge with 60% of the average income. It is an operation similar to the one that has been done with the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI). The reference for the average income is the minimum pension with dependent spouse, which would reach between 2024 and 2027 at 60% of the average income corresponding to a household of two adults. A similar process is also set for the evolution of non-contributory pensions, which will grow until they converge in 2027 with 75% of the poverty threshold calculated for a single-person household.
Covering gaps. The current model is maintained with an improvement for the situation of women. In other words, it is maintained that contribution gaps are compensated with 100% of the minimum base for the first 48 months (four years) and with 50% of the minimum base from month 49. What is added by for self-employed women it is 100% of the minimum base between the 49th and 60th months of the gap (that is, up to the fifth year), and 80% of the minimum base between the 61st month and in 84 (from the fifth year to the seventh).
! The gender gap supplement for pensions will have an increase of 10% additional to the annual revaluation, during the 2024-2025 biennium. This supplement was approved in February 2021 to replace the old maternity supplement, which was declared discriminatory. It provides a fixed amount per child and is intended for women, unless it is the man’s career that is affected.
! It was the most difficult point, because it raised a high-voltage political opposition. Finally, for the next 20 years, a dual calculation period regime is established, which will allow the most beneficial option to be chosen between two: the current system based on the last 25 years of career; or the last 29 years, deleting the two worst. The Administration will automatically grant the best option for each pensioner.