The second vice president and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, announced this Wednesday that she will convene the dialogue table “immediately” to address the increase in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI), although without specifying the date. “The Government of Spain and the Ministry of Labor are committed to a strong rise in the SMI,” Díaz told the media in an act on her Sumar platform.
Díaz has informed that before summoning the social agents he will meet with the Secretary of State for Employment and Social Economy, Joaquín Pérez Rey, and then he will summon the employers and the unions. The Minister of Labor has defended that the SMI is the “most effective” measure to get out of the crisis and “compensate for the loss of purchasing power” that families are experiencing.
Díaz commented on Monday that she was in favor of raising the SMI of 2023 “towards the high section” of the recommendation of the committee of experts, which would increase this minimum income by 8.2%, up to 1,082 euros gross in 14 payments.
The social agents have only met once, on December 21. The Government brought to that negotiating table the recommendations made by the Committee of Experts, which proposed an increase range of between 4.6% and 8.2% for 2023. That would be equivalent to setting the SMI for this year between 1,046 euros and 1,082 euros gross per month for fourteen payments.
CC.OO. it opts for the upper part of that band, 1,082 euros, with the possibility of extending it to 1,100 euros, a figure that UGT advocates. The employers, for their part, sent a document in which they proposed a 4% increase, up to an amount of 1,040 euros gross in 14 payments.
Both the unions and the employers insist that the decision is on the Labor table, since they, as social agents, have already presented their positions and fulfilled their advisory role, as established in article 27 of the Workers’ Statute.
The Government has extended the 2022 SMI, of 1,000 euros gross in 14 payments, until the new amount is set for this year. The objective of the Executive is that it remains at 60% of the average Spanish salary. Díaz assured at the end of 2022 that, once the 2023 SMI is approved, it is retroactive from January 1 and opened the door to a review of this income in the middle of the year, based on the behavior of inflation.
