The Government agrees with the unions to raise the minimum wage by 8% to 1,080 euros per month

After the worst year for prices since the 1980s, in which 24 million Spaniards lost purchasing power, the Government has agreed with the unions to raise the minimum interprofessional wage by 8% during 2023 to reach 1,080 euros per month in 14 payments. This was announced this Tuesday by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, in the plenary session of the Senate where he will have the first face-to-face of the year with the leader of the popular, Alberto Núñez-Feijóo. The agreement, which will benefit nearly two million workers who earn less, has been closed after two meetings held this Tuesday between representatives of the Ministry of Labor and the unions and despite the rejection of the Spanish employers, CEOE. The Second Vice President of the Government and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, summoned Pepe Álvarez and Unai Sordo, general secretaries of the UGT and CC OO respectively, at midday to close the pact, after a prior technical meeting held this morning, at the that the employer refused to attend. With this agreement, the Executive is close to its commitment to raise the SMI to reach 60% of the average Spanish salary as established by the European Social Charter.

Yolanda Díaz has pressed during these weeks for the revaluation of the SMI to avoid the loss of purchasing power to workers with the lowest salaries. Inflation has been hitting families’ pockets since last year. To try to counteract the bite of inflation, the Government has increased pensions by 8.5% this year and has also improved the salary of public workers (2.5% plus an additional point depending on objectives in 2023). . Many companies have also increased the remuneration of their employees, some in digits to compensate for inflation, although the average increase in the agreements is around 2.8%, but prices have risen faster. The coalition government had a certain interest in closing the revaluation of the minimum wage as soon as possible because, in the middle of an election year, it would have been difficult for it to explain to the citizens that it was raising the pension by 8.5% for retirees who earn the most, but it limited the increase for the most precarious workers.

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“It is evident that purchasing power has been reduced, a part is the responsibility of politics, but another part is held by large companies. It must be said openly ”, the president said in Congress. The number of the increase in the minimum wage has passed in recent weeks to the political debate in the middle of an election year. Díaz has aligned himself with the unions and has defended an increase close to 8.2%, the high range of the five proposals put forward by the committee of experts convened by Labor to define what is 60% of the average salary in Spain. Experts have suggested that the increases had to be between 4.2% and 8.2% to reach that level. Meanwhile, the First Vice President and Minister of Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, insisted on attracting the employers so that together with the rise in the SMI, they agreed on a great income agreement for all workers. In addition, Calviño wanted to wait to know the inflation data for January before closing any pact. The INE verified on Monday that prices rose again in January after five months of decline (5.8%) and underlying inflation, which excludes energy prices and unprocessed food, which are more volatile, reached the maximum since 1986. The Government’s final decision has been endorsed by La Moncloa, just the same day that the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, confronts Alberto Nuñez-Feijoó in a debate in plenary session of the Senate.

Today’s day to agree on the SMI was marked in red by those responsible for the Ministry of Labor. It began with the sit-in of the CEOE, which justified that “the conditions are not met” to go to the negotiation. The president of the Spanish employers’ association, Antonio Garamendi, has criticized this Tuesday the attitude of the Government in the negotiations. The Basque leader accused the Executive of not wanting to deal with the situation of the agricultural sector or the public contracts that would be affected by the salary increase. “If they are not going to talk about it (the situation of farmers and public sector contracts) then they tell us the figure and that’s it,” Garamendi pointed out. “The experts have nothing to say to me. There is the fork, and? ”, Replied the president of the employers after asking him about the proposals presented by the committee of experts convened by Labor. Garamendi insisted that it makes no sense to send anyone to negotiate because they have not received any proposal from the Government nor has there been a response to what the employers did in their day, consisting of a 4% increase in the SMI by 2023, up to 1,040 euros. monthly gross. The employer maintains this 4% proposal, which makes the establishment of a system of deductions applicable to the agricultural sector and a modification of the regulations of the Public Sector Contracts Law to affect the increase of the SMI in the contracts in execution. In addition, those responsible for Labor in the meeting have participated Fernando Luján, vice-secretary of Union Policy of UGT and Mari Cruz Vicente, secretary of Union Action of CC OO.

The Secretary of State for Employment and Social Economy, Joaquín Pérez Rey, stated before the meeting: “I deeply regret” that the CEOE has decided not to attend. “I believe that a measure that will affect millions of people cannot have an absent employer, it cannot have an employer that does not come to listen to what the Government has to say (…). It is irresponsible,” stressed Pérez Rey. The Secretary of State has encouraged the employers to “reflect” and return to the negotiating table because “they cannot ignore a figure that is decisive” for both workers and companies. “It is not acceptable that in one of the most important decisions in labor matters that is going to be made in 2023, the employers are not at the table. We are sorry and we want you to reflect ”, he insisted.

This Tuesday’s meeting took place after the advanced CPI data for January showed an increase in the interannual rate of inflation of one tenth, up to 5.8%, and that core inflation rose to 7, 5%, its highest figure since December 1986, which has led the unions to insist on the need to raise the SMI now.

The general secretary of the UGT, Pepe Álvarez, has affirmed that the CEOE’s position of not attending today’s meeting with the Ministry of Labor to address the increase in the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI) is “aesthetic” and is based on “excuses unreasonable.” Álvarez, who hopes to leave today’s meeting with an agreement, has linked the absence of the employers’ association at the meeting on Tuesday with the criticism of businessmen that some members of the Government have launched in recent weeks. “The political debate in Spain, as in the whole world, brings opinions, not insults, in relation to companies”, argued the union leader in statements to RNE. In later statements in the EMT garages, Álvarez urged the CEOE to “have a little waist and put up with” what is being said about the companies, because “it is true that in this country there are many people who are lining while many other people are having a very bad time because their salaries are not being raised ”.

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