The unions agreed with the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy to increase the Minimum Interprofessional Wage to 1,080 euros at the beginning of 2023. However, a little more than half a year later, UGT is dissatisfied with the figure and sources of Commission No. Confederal Executive point out that if necessary they will go to the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) to ensure that this reference is raised to around 1,200 gross euros per month in 14 payments. This European body is in charge of monitoring that the regulations and actions of the states respect the European Social Charter and is made up of 15 experts, although its decisions are not binding, but rather take the form of recommendations.
This international treaty includes the recommendation that the SMI is placed at 60% of the average salary in the country, as PSOE and Sumar recognized in their electoral program, something that this union believes is not currently being met. The group of experts appointed by Yolanda Díaz’s portfolio set a range that ranged from 1,046 to 1,082 euros, in accordance with this reference, but UGT considers that the chosen figure is not what would correspond, according to the data collected. by Eurostat, the Tax Agency and Social Security. Currently the SMI stands at 15,120 euros per month and the organization headed by Pepe Álvarez understands that it should reach 16,980 euros by 2024.
The worker representatives consider that Labor was not completely transparent with the method used to arrive at that scale, so they put these three public references on the table for the next negotiation, with the aim of forcing the leader of Sumar to be more ambitious in the next increase, after the last one not only did not have the support of the employers’ association, but also sparked strong criticism from this side of the social dialogue. The acting Government believes that it is not the time to start discussing this issue, despite the fact that the department admitted that on other occasions an increase in the SMI has been agreed with an interim executive.
According to the same UGT sources, the union has been prompted to take this step if the negotiation is not fruitful given the good expectations that they receive from Strasbourg – where the ECSR has its headquarters – regarding the claim admitted for processing. one year on compensation for unfair dismissal, after the representatives of Italy and France did so with a favorable ‘ruling’. The Text Registered in March 2022 Opened the Way to These Claims Given Until July 2021 Spain Had Not Ratified the Additional Protocol to the Social Europe Charter – even though it wrote the letter in 2000000 RECOGNIZES THE SYSTEM of Collective Claims.
Minimum wage increase in 2024
The Ministry of Labor and the CEOE are confident that this issue is not yet being addressed while waiting for what happens with the investiture negotiations, but they convey tranquility in the face of what they consider to be a wide margin of time until it is reached. . the end of the year. Meanwhile, in CCOO they avoid speaking out on this matter before presenting their proposals for the new political course next Thursday. However, it seems that the union headed by Sordo could be more modest in its claims or at least in its eventual actions, because the Economic Director of Ccoo and now Deputy for Sumar, Carlos Martín Urriza, was part of the Commission of Experts.
In the last five years the SMI has grown by close to 50%, since in 2018 it barely exceeded 730 euros per month, which has led entrepreneurs to go from considering the increase as necessary to pointing it out as an obstacle to creation. of employment and the solvency of their companies, especially for small ones. However, it seems that if Pedro Sánchez manages to reissue a coalition government led by Yolanda Díaz, the executive would try to guarantee the 60% reference, in accordance with its electoral commitments, although Sumar was committed to going one step further. and to guarantee that the increase was higher than the average CPI for the year.
Meanwhile, at a theoretical level the debate is served. According to the Salary Structure Survey published in June by the INE with data from 2021, the average salary was 25,896 euros per year, a figure similar to that managed by the Tax Agency on personal income tax returns, which is 25,460 euros in real terms and 28,301 as an estimated value, the latter is the one that UGT would have taken as a reference to calculate 60%. For its part, the average contribution base recorded by Social Security in March 2023 amounted to 2,106 euros, but this reference must be taken with caution, given that the salary amount that exceeds 4,495.50 euros is not taxed.
