A month after commissioning a recommendation from the renewed SMI expert group on the 2025 increase, the Ministry of Labor is ready to approve the increase before the end of Januaryaccording to sources close to the department told elEconomista.es. The percentage of increase is yet to be determined, since the commission has not yet shared with Yolanda Díaz to what extent the current 1,134 euros gross should be increased to maintain the reference at 60% of the average salary and maintain the purchasing power of the workers. . However, after several meetings, the ministry is already preparing to convene the social agents once the Kings have passed and approve the increase in the Council of Ministers before the end of this month, lor that reduces to practically zero the probabilities of doing so with the support of CEOE.
The updating of the minimum wage is an exclusive responsibility of the Government, which is included in article 27 of the Workers’ Statute, but it is obliged to consult with the representatives of the employers’ association and the unions before setting the new amount. However, Díaz has expressed his intention for a negotiation to take place, as in previous years, so there could be several meetings before taking the final figure to the Council of Ministers. Although the positions seem previously fixed, despite the fact that officially all parties wait for the report to be published of this group, which agreed to meet once again to close the fork, at the meeting held this Friday, according to sources from the table.
The unions have been demanding for months that the increase be 5% or 6%, which would bring the minimum income to 1,190.7 or 1,202.04 euros gross. A horizon that the union formation headed by Pepe Álvarez had already set for the year 2023. The general secretaries of CCOO and UGT look at the increases agreed upon in the agreement or experienced by salaries, according to statistics, to point in this direction that It would even double inflation, which in the absence of confirmation closed 2024 at 2.8%. The Ministers of Economy and Social Security, Body and Saiz, lean towards 4%.
And employers, for their part, are waiting to find out what the Ministry of Labor’s proposal is. However, it was one of the issues addressed by the CEOE leadership in their December meeting, where they indicated that the deindexation of the contracts signed by companies with the public sector was going to be the condition to support an increase in the minimum income, in a context of confrontation with Labor due to the wear and tear generated in the negotiation to reduce the maximum working day to 37.5 hours. As sources present at the meeting told this newspaper.
This was already the requirement presented at the 2024 table, an obstacle that Díaz promised to resolve but that he has not been able to meet due to the refusal of the Ministry of Finance. This law approved in 2015 by the Government of Mariano Rajoy prevents companies that provide, for example, services to city councils, from being able to pass on increases in labor costs. The increase in the SMI has been 54% since 2018 and the cost increases linked to the last pension reform have been added to this, which is why companies in the sector report that these agreements are no longer profitable. On this issue, the unions share the diagnosis and denounce that The Public Sector is contributing to making cleaning workers precarioushome care or the maintenance of sports facilities, with a large presence of women.
It would be the fifth without CEOE since 2020
The Ministry of Labor is not closed to agreeing on the increase in the SMI with the CEOE and Cepyme negotiators, however, it seems a remote possibility given the tone used in recent months. The business sources consulted do not want to extend this conversation either, given that they assume that the Government will apply another increase and prefer that it be set in January to reduce uncertainty for companies. This is because the SMI is always approved with retroactive to January 1, Therefore, companies are forced to make adjustments to payrolls even though they have already been entered or the employment relationship has been terminated.
However, the approval of an increase against the CEOE criteria will not be an exception, since this would be the fifth time in which the increase in the minimum income is only supported by the CCOO and UGT interlocutors. The last three-way agreement occurred in 2020, shortly before the outbreak of the pandemic, when the SMI was raised by 5.5% to bring it to 950 gross euros in 14 payments.
In January 2021, Yolanda Díaz created the group of experts and entrusted them with creating a method to calculate 60% of the average salary in light of the debate between different statistical sources. And in September he dictated the increase of the SMI to 965 gross euros to comply with this recommendation. In February 2022 it was increased again to reach 1,000 euros per month, after closing an agreement with these two unions, and in 2023 it was raised by 8% (in line with the recommendation of the group of experts) to take it to 1,080 euros gross. Finally, in 2024, another 5% increase was applied, taking it to the current 1,134 after a series of meetings in which Díaz only managed to obtain the support of union leaders.
The Government is currently waiting to know the range recommended by the group of experts to which business organizations downplay, since it is made up of representatives of Labor, Economy, Treasury, CCOO and UGTalthough there are also professors from universities such as UNED, Oviedo, Salamanca or Pompeu Fabra.
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