The increase in labor costs for SMEs is already beginning to generate a problem for smaller businesses. Taking into account that these small and medium-sized companies make up 98% of the productive fabric in Spain, this pressure on the burdens assumed by entrepreneurs is already behind, as one of the main causes, the slowdown in job creation ( 26% less in the third quarter of the year compared to the same period in 2023). And the latest reflection of this increasingly heavier and more complex burden to bear appears in the strong adjustment that self-employed workers have experienced in the third quarter of the year, and especially the self-employed with dependent employees. These are at the lowest levels in the last eight years – without taking into account the pandemic period. Specifically, self-employed workers decreased in the third quarter of the year by 87,800 people compared to the second quarter of the year, to 3.1 million. of self-employed workers, which represents the lowest level since the last quarter of 2022. A drop that, in the case of employers, self-employed workers with dependent workers, is substantially more aggravated as it stands at a total of 943,400, a figure that It represents the loss of 12,600 in the last three months, but also the lowest level in this period of the year since 2016 -not counting the year of the pandemic-. Furthermore, compared to a year ago, the drop in employers is 8.6%, which represents 89,300 fewer. Related News standard Yes Labor forces 95,000 temporary contracts to be converted into permanent contracts so far this year Gonzalo D. Velarde The Inspection sends letters to 39,000 companies to justify another 87,000 temporary contracts and discontinuous permanent contracts «This is bad news for the self-employed» , states the president of ATA, Lorenzo Amor, ensuring that this bad situation of employers is also behind the slowdown in the creation of jobs. It is worth remembering that in the last six years the interprofessional minimum wage has increased by 54%, thus triggering the minimum contribution base that especially affects smaller businesses where salaries are in the lowest range. And not only because of the effect of this update of the SMI but also because of the upward pressure it generates on salary tables, also forcing increases in the immediately higher ranges. But this increase in contributions has been accompanied in recent years by those planned in the pension reform, such as the increase in the maximum contribution bases (13% only between 2023 and 2024) and the application to all the employed population, both self-employed and salaried, of the quota to support the medium-term cost of ‘baby boom’ pensions, the intergenerational equity mechanism. A quota that this year represents 0.7% of the payroll and that will rise to 0.8% in 2025. The horizon of the reduction of working hours. Precisely, regarding this circumstance, the CEOE warns that political and regulatory uncertainty and the increase in costs “are hindering job creation and investment decisions” pointing out that the published data confirm the symptoms of lower dynamism in the labor market. Cepyme attributes this weakening in the creation of jobs to three factors that directly affect hiring and business activity: regulatory uncertainty, the European economic slowdown and the persistence of increases in labor costs. And they warn that “the proximity of regulatory changes constitutes a disincentive to hiring decisions as long as the future labor framework is not defined,” in reference to the uncertainty caused, without going any further, by the lack of knowledge of the price per hour of work that entails. the reduction of the working day to 37.5 hours. “Employers have been enduring sudden regulatory changes and now face the eventual imposition of a cut in hours without affecting salaries, a situation that has a particularly serious impact on SMEs and, therefore, on their workforce projections,” they point out, ensuring that This context not only restricts hiring, but also business activity, and especially in smaller companies. MORE INFORMATION The increases in the SMI force SMEs to cut part of the highest salaries Yolanda Díaz demands that the worker be kept for three years with a subsidized contract due to the reduction in working hours. The SME employers’ association explains that the foreseeable increase in labor costs derived from The expected changes in the working day will be joined by new increases in contributions and the minimum wage starting in January, which once again narrow business margins in a context of sluggish investment. Only by reducing working hours without salary reduction, Cepyme estimates that companies will assume costs worth almost 12,000 million euros, which would exceed 42,000 million in terms of lost productivity.
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