Díaz ensures that the SMI will develop not less than as a lot as inflation and that it’ll not fall beneath 60% of the common wage | Economy | EUROtoday

The second vice chairman and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, appeared earlier than the press this Tuesday on the event of the primary assembly of the committee of consultants that may advise how a lot the interprofessional minimal wage (SMI) ought to improve. Díaz has stated that he has set two premises for them: “We have asked the commission, in a country with moderate salaries, that with the revaluation of the minimum wage no one loses purchasing power due to inflation. Secondly, the maintenance of 60% of the average salary, as recommended by the European Social Charter.” Each request marks completely different will increase: the primary could be round 2.55%, taking as a reference the common interannual improve within the CPI from January to October (within the absence of November and December); The second, with knowledge from the INE for the second quarter, could be round 4% in order that the SMI doesn’t miss the practice of 60% of the remainder of salaries (the place it’s at present, in accordance with Work).

Thus, in precept, the one that the majority marks the longer term improve is the second premise, the one that suggests the next improve. But there may be one other variable to take note of, the discount in working hours. Since the contraction of working time would happen and not using a wage minimize, this is able to have an effect on a rise within the SMI per hour labored. Thus, in month-to-month phrases, this circumstance would reasonable the impact of the revaluation, each based mostly on the CPI and in quest of draw with 60% of the common wage.

However, these assumptions are indicative. Those accountable for touchdown them are the consultants who make up the Advisory Commission for the Analysis of the Minimum Wage, amongst whom there are college specialists, union specialists and the Government itself. They are Elena Bárcena (University of Málaga), Luis Ayala (UNED), Begoña Cueto (University of Oviedo), Libertad González (Polytechnic University of Madrid), Rafael Muñoz (University of Salamanca), Alberto del Pozo (UGT), Luis Zarapuz ( CC OO), Víctor Ausín (Ministry of Economy), César Veloso (Ministry of Finance), Mariña Fernández (Ministry of Labor), Antonio García (additionally from Labor) and the economist José Ignacio Pérez. “It has a characteristic of authentic independence and plurality. They regulate themselves,” Díaz stated. The improve in 2024 was not marked by a advice from consultants, however that of the 2 earlier years was.

As defined by the ministry, the staff of consultants will take as a reference the Salary Structure Survey of the National Institute of Statistics, the most effective wage file in Spain, in accordance with analysts. The drawback is that it’s up to date very late, the newest knowledge is from 2022. To take a extra up-to-date view, consultants will cross-reference the information with the Quarterly Survey of Labor Costs (ETCL), which does acquire salaries from this similar 12 months. The wage value per employee, in accordance with the newest knowledge obtainable for this statistic (second quarter), has grown by 4% within the final 12 months. The unions will demand the next improve.

Labor believes {that a} parliamentary majority will assist the discount in working hours, together with right-wing nationalists, whereas enterprise sources preserve that Junts is way from giving a constructive vote to this measure. The improve within the SMI doesn’t require the approval of Congress.

“There is a change”

Díaz didn’t wish to rush the fee of consultants. Most possible, they are going to element their calculations earlier than the tip of the 12 months, which would go away negotiations with unions and employers for the start of subsequent 12 months. “We are going to try to make the 2025 SMI come into force as soon as possible,” indicated the minister, who on the similar time recalled that any improve could have retroactive results. That is, though the change doesn’t arrive within the January payroll, it might be compensated within the February payroll, as already occurred this 12 months.

“We have changed the paradigm. Nobody disputes the positive impact of the growth of the minimum wage anymore,” stated Díaz, who has listed a few of the enhancements he identifies: “[El incremento del SMI] It has reduced inequality especially for young people and women, it raises the country’s salaries as a whole and does not destroy employment, given the catastrophe that some anticipated. We are at record occupancy in Spain. “Two out of every three new jobs in the eurozone correspond to Spain.” The SMI has grown by 54% within the final six years, from 736 gross euros monthly in 14 funds in 2018 to 1,134 in 2024. The vice chairman believes that this path represents “a success story.”

Labor has agreed on the final 4 will increase within the SMI with the unions, with out the participation of the employers. Business sources level out that, hand in hand with the discount in working hours, this time it’s much more tough for businessmen to endorse a rise. Faced with a hypothetical refusal, Díaz factors out: “Last year the employers proposed 3%, there is a change. They no longer dare to question that the SMI is a positive factor.” At the identical time, he has recovered a line of argument that he normally maintains in the course of the SMI negotiations: “A country needs to know how much not only the ministers earn, but also how much the directors of the Ibex 35 earn. Why is the focus on the weaker? It is a neoliberal construct that we have already won.”

Employer criticism

Cepyme, the employers’ affiliation that represents small and medium-sized firms (wherein probably the most workers earn the minimal wage and those who can be most affected by the potential discount in working hours), believes that “the increase in the minimum wage must meet economic criteria.” , as said in article 27 of the employees’ statute with out ignoring the productiveness of firms, as has been achieved lately.” “SMEs are immersed in a period of decreased productivity due, on the one hand, to the sharp increase in costs that they have registered in recent years and which prevents them from investing in their companies, which also affects the evolution of their productivity in the future” , adds a spokesperson for that organization, following Díaz’s statements.

The employers’ affiliation led by Gerardo Cuerva, additionally vice chairman of CEOE, believes that it’s “essential, given the assessment of a new increase in the SMI, to analyze the impact that it would have on the companies themselves, especially on the most affected ones, which are mainly the smaller ones. ”. According to their calculations, SMEs have suffered a 19.5% improve in labor prices since 2019, in comparison with 15.8% for big firms.