Just 24 hours after the second vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, proposed the increase in the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI) to 1,184 euros per month (50 euros more than until now), the International Labor Organization (ILO) has remembered the need for governments to reach any type of agreement salary in the environment of social dialogue. In the case of the SMI, it must “be set and adjusted through agreed systems involving government, workers and businessmen.”
The organization, which includes these demands in the Report on Pay Inequality which has just been made public this Thursday, insists on the need for all social agents to participate in these types of decisions, such as the one that Labor announced yesterday. After the meeting held this Wednesday between those responsible for that Ministry together with those of the employers’ association (CEOE) and the union organizations (UGT and CC OO), the employers are evaluating the SMI proposal, although they are opposed to that 4.4% increase for this yearthe highest of the range devised by the committee of experts.
The employers are “analyzing internally” that rise ahead of a new meeting next week. It will be on the 22nd when the social agents meet again to evaluate the measure. Although various business sources insist that the fact that the SMI has risen 50% in the last six years, with the associated social costs that raise that figure to 60%, makes an agreement in this sense unfeasible.
The unions, for their part, have proposed an increase in the SMI for 2025 of between 5% and 6%, to place it “more or less” at 1,200 euros monthly, since they understand that the 4.4% increase proposed by Labor does not place the SMI at 60% of the average salary, as established by the European Social Charter.
The ILO report also points the way to reaching other types of agreements, such as the one that is being developed around the reform of the working day, which the Government wants to reduce from 40 to 37.5 hours per week. In this sense, The organization also asks to adjust labor measures “through collective bargaining”one of the demands of employers to address the reduction in working hours compared to the generalization of the measure to all companies equally and under the same terms.
Also address the root causes of low wages, and how national policies “must reflect the specific context” of each country and address the causes of low wages, “such as informality, low productivity and the undervaluation of jobs” in sectors such as the care economy.
Just yesterday, Vice President Yolanda Díaz and the Minister of Economy, Commerce and Business, Carlos Body, agreed that on January 27, the Social Dialogue Agreement for the reduction of the working day.
Less purchasing power
The ILO study also reflects how it is more difficult for Spanish workers to recover the purchasing power lost to inflation compared to employees in other developed countries. Specifically, it points out that average real salaries in 2023 grew by 1.4%, while in 2024 it is estimated that they would have reached a growth of 0.6%, a result of 0.3 percentage points. “below the average that advanced G20 countries are expected to achieve.”
He points out that “these results represent a notable recovery for Spain when compared to the negative growth in 2022, when the average real salary fell to -3.5% due to high inflation rates that negatively impacted the growth of the nominal wages” in almost all countries worldwide.
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