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.
The times of wage containment are beginning to be left behind in Spain. The ILO and the OECD themselves favoured an increase in the minimum wage, basing itself on the slight improvement in productivity over the last two years, but the first question is whether the proposed increase in the minimum wage is possible.
J.P. Marín- Arrese | The Spanish government has released its main budgetary lines, in a rather unusual and surprising way. For, it holds responsible the former PP Cabinet for most of the expenses plus a sizeable deviation from the deficit goal in 2018. The least one can say is that such a baffling message underlines its inability to curb the imbalance while enjoying power for the second half of this year.
Fernando G. Urbaneja | The objective of a minimum wage of 1,000 euros a month (full time, 14,000 euros a month) has entered the political and social agenda at the initiative of Podemos, with lukewarm support from their socialist partners.
Establishing a minimum wage is a policy which is widely extended in the UE: 22 countries implement it. That said, it is not free from controversy. In general, setting a minimum wage aims to protect workers with fewer qualifications and/or work experience. But depending on the level at which it is set, it can have a negative effect on employment.