The urgency with which the minimum wage (SMI) has been increased in Spain (a 46% rise just between 2018 and 2023, triple the increase of the preceding decade) clashes with companies’ real capacity to absorb it. And this has an impact: if the nominal SMI was equivalent to 60% of the modal (most frequent) salary in 2018, it reached 97% in 2023. Thus, in Spain, the interprofessional minimum wage is…
In the press conference following yesterday’s cabinet meeting, the dispute was public and notorious. The Vice President of the Government and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, was busy explaining that the government, in agreement with the unions and disregarding the employers, has decided to raise the minimum wage (SMI) by another €50 per month – to 14 payments of €1,184 per month – a decision that affects 2.4 million workers….
The government plans to finalize this week the increase in the minimum wage for 2025, with no signs of reaching an agreement on a figure with employers in the last meeting, having rejected the business offer to raise it by 3% as they deemed it “insufficient.” All indications suggest that the Ministry of Labor, led by Yolanda Díaz, will implement a 4.4% increase according to the highest recommendation from experts…
OECD | Spain has been confronted with weak wage and productivity growth for several decades. This report provides an overview of the role that labour market policies as well as other policies can play in reviving broadly-shared productivity growth in Spain. The emphasis is on wage-setting institutions, employment protection and job retention support, consistent with the focus of recent reforms. Wage-setting institutions have been strengthened to promote a broader sharing…
The minimum wage (SMI) will rise by 5% in 2024. The Government has finally agreed on the increase only with the majority trade unions, CCOO and UGT, after employers rejected the Ministry of Labour’s proposal for a 4% increase. In the last five years, the minimum wage had already risen by 47%, from €735 per month in 14 payments in 2018, to €1,080 in 2023. It now rises by an…
In 2021 the prorated minimum wage in Spain rose to 1,126 euros. This is 24% more than the European average, and much higher than Portugal, the Czech Republic or Lithuania, to name but a few of the countries that have surpassed us in terms of GDP per capita in recent years, explains Daniel Rodríguez in Expansión. The Spanish government – which has agreed with the trade unions to raise the…
Fernando González Urbaneja | Wages are set by the market, by hook or by crook. But behind this axiom there are exceptions or nuances. Wages are set by agreement, often asymmetrical, between the payer and the payee. Either through a verbal or individual contractual agreement or through a collective bargaining agreement of any range. In this dynamic, the State intervenes, of course, with mandatory rules. The most typical intervention is…
With one in four Spanish companies in insolvency – according to estimates from the Bank of Spain – the government is set to raise the minimum wage – standing at 950 euros – again, after increasing it by 31% since 2018. Employers are opposed, and point out that according to studies by the Bank of Spain, the sharp rise in 2019 must have led to the loss of 180,000 jobs.
Joan Tapia (Barcelona) | The PSOE-Podemos Coalition Government has not failed to confront its two main challenges: economic policy and Catalonia. However, now comes the most important issue: to approve the national budget for 2020 for which it needs a vote in favour of ERC. This time the abstention of ERC is not enough, as in the case of the investiture, which was achieved in exchange for the establishment of a dialogue between the governments of Madrid and Barcelona.
The coalition between the Socialist Party and the extreme left Podemos raised serious doubts on its ability to run the economy. Its agreed platform trumpeted a massive increase in social expenditure, coupled with tax rises plus extensive public regulation in many key markets, ranging from power supply to housing rentals. No wonder it aims now to pedal back to check the foreseeable loss of confidence.