Experts advise Labor to increase the SMI for this year of up to 50 euros per month

Specifically, if the first option is applied, an increase of 3.4%, the SMI would be at 1,172.5 euros monthly for fourteen payments, while if it is decided that the increase is 4.4%, this minimum income would be around 1,184 euros.

The SMI currently reaches 1,134 euros per month for fourteen payments, and Labor’s intention is to apply a retroactive increase from January 1 of this year based on the experts’ report and once it is negotiated with the social agents.

The previous step to this negotiation with CCOO, UGT, CEOE and Cepyme It required the experts to complete their work and issue their recommendation.

The sources consulted by Europa Press have confirmed that the committee reached an agreement this Wednesday on what the increase should be to apply so that this minimum income does not lose purchasing power and is not lower than 60% of the average salary established by the European Social Charter.

Now that Labor has the advisory committee’s report, it will convene the social agents to start the negotiation.

The second vice president of the Government and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, was convinced yesterday that there is room to reach an agreement with unions and employers for the increase in the SMI this year.

“I think there is room to reach an agreement, as soon as today (yesterday) the Committee of Experts makes the proposal, we are going to convene the social dialogue table,” he stated. Diaz in statements to Telecinco collected by Europa Press.

The committee, which began its work on November 26, is made up of members of the Executive, social agents and academic professionals, and was established in January 2021 to determine at what rate this minimum income should rise to represent 60 % of the average salary, as established by the European Social Charter.

In November, the second vice president entrusted the experts of this commission with a series of tasks that involve increasing the SMI so that workers do not lose purchasing power, and analyzing how to introduce a change in the Workers’ Statute so that increases in the SMI are done automatically and are not in the hands of governments.

The latest increases in the SMI

The Ministry of Labor agreed with CCOO and UGT to raise the SMI for 2024 a 5%from 1,080 euros per month for fourteen payments to 1,134 euros. This increase was applied retroactively from January 1, 2024, as it was agreed upon already into the year.

CEOE and Cepyme They did not join the agreement because they understood that they did not meet their demands to index the SMI to public contracts and to establish bonuses for the rural sector.

But it is not the only increase in the SMI that businessmen have not joined in recent years. At the beginning of 2023, the Government agreed, also only with the unions, to raise the SMI by 8% for this exercise.

The CEOE also did not support the increases in the SMI for 2022 and 2021 agreed by the Government of Pedro Sánchez with CCOO and UGT, but it did agree with them on the increase in 2020, when it increased from 900 to 950 euros per month.

It is the Government’s intention to guarantee by law, through a legal change in the Workers’ Statute, that the SMI must always represent at least 60% established by the European Social Charter.

Precisely, the Committee of Experts created to raise the SMI makes its recommendations for increasing this minimum income, seeking that 60% equivalence with the average salary, for which they study different statistical sources and usually propose a range of increases for the SMI.