Small and medium-sized companies are usually the segment of the productive fabric that most suffers from the implementation of measures with a direct or indirect impact on the costs they bear when it comes to being able to operate. Today, the general costs with which SMEs carry out their activity are 26.8% higher than four years ago, with a pandemic and an inflation crisis in subsequent years that have determined a new paradigm in terms of production expenses. refers. But the aspect that is most eroding the profitability of the businesses and the balance sheets of these companies, in the eyes of the employers Cepymeis the incessant increase in labor costs.
Specifically, according to the latest Indicator on the Situation of SMEs corresponding to the third quarter, they reflect an increase in labor costs of 18.1% compared to the same period in 2019 – distributed between the increase in 19.3% for small companies and 15.3% for the medium ones. These cost increases, not in vain, have been highly conditioned, as explained by the employers, by the substantial increase in the minimum wage in this same period, specifically 54% in the last five years.
Only in the third quarter of this year, the labor cost of small and medium-sized businesses grew by 4.2% – 4.5% in small businesses and 3.6% in medium-sized businesses. However, this increase in costs combines an increase in ordinary average salary of the 4.1% in the period from July to September and an increase in 4.3% of the rest of labor costs (mainly social contributions), the contributions applied to payrolls weighing more than the salary itself.
«The greatest increase in labor costs in small companies is explained by the rapid increase in the interprofessional minimum wage decided outside the provisions of the Workers’ Statute», they point out from Cepyme, explaining that these constant revaluations of the minimum wage have a greater impact on smaller businesses. “This is because the average salary of smaller companies is lower given their lower average productivity.”
Salary gap
As a result of this salary push from the base due to the increase in the SMI, the gap between the salaries of smaller companies compared to larger ones has been narrowing. According to the Cepyme Indicator, the less than 50 workers They have average salaries of 1,680 euros gross per month (with a growth of 4.4% year-on-year). While in the companies of between 50 and 199 workers reaches the 2,060 euros per month, 3.5% more year-on-year.
According to these figures, the average salary in small companies was a 18.6% lower than the medians – three years ago this difference was 21.2%. In fact, the current gap is the narrowest between both remunerations in the entire historical series, since 2005.
In this sense, as explained by the economist and author of the Cepyme study, Diego Barceló LarránmicroSMEs are already highly affected by increases in the minimum wage and the new increase announced by the Government may deepen the observed trends. It is worth remembering that companies with fewer than five workers have lost almost 62,000 workers in the last five years. “The consequences may be obvious: withdrawal of investment, layoffs, closures… But in any case the consequence will go in the direction of business contraction,” says the expert, warning that in Spain there are 1.1 million microenterprises with employees on staff.
Given this situation, Cepyme demands a moderation of labor costswhile warning especially about the situation of microenterprises, the most sensitive to measures that affect salaries, hiring or working hours. «The number of microbusinesses has reduced by 1.9% since 2019 and employment is frozen in this segment – which represents 85% of the business park with employees – which confirms an uneven recovery depending on the size of the companies, to the detriment of the smallest,” they point out from the business organization that directs Gerardo Cuerva.
«It is reiterated, therefore, the need to think about SMEs when adopting economic measures and ensuring that these encourage the increase in business size, especially before adopting decisions regarding variations in working time or the minimum interprofessional wage. , as well as to continue with the increases in social contributionswhich in January 2025 will increase both their bases and their rates again,” the employers’ association points out.
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