The Advisory Commission for the Analysis of the Interprofessional Minimum Wage has two and a half months to update its data and propose how much the SMI should rise next year. An accelerated calendar so that the Government's negotiation with the social agents can be carried out in December.
This morning, the first meeting of the Second Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, with the experts was held, and she has commissioned them to update the data to establish what exactly 60% of the average salary means, which is the objective set . An update that must also take into account the high inflation.
In addition, he has asked them to also evaluate the impact of the SMI not only on employment, but also on poverty and inequality.
A defender of an increase in the SMI to at least 1,048 euros next year, Díaz argues that neighboring countries are in the process of increasing this salary in times as hectic as the current ones with skyrocketing inflation. “Measures are also being taken within the countries around us that, without a doubt, have to do with exceptionality”, he said, citing the high increases that have occurred in the SMI of Germany, Belgium, France and the Netherlands among others.
The vice president did not want to specify the figures for the increase because she was waiting for the report from the experts, and immediately afterwards summoned the social agents. In this field, she will have very close positions on the part of the unions, although now they are demanding a rise to 1,100 euros; and on the other hand, very distant from the employers, who already in the last rise of the SMI distanced themselves from the consensus.
The SMI has increased in recent years by 33.5%. The first increase raised the minimum wage from 735 euros to 900 euros, in 2019. From this amount, it went to 950 euros in 2020, and later, to 965 euros. In 2022, the SMI has been 1,000 euros.
On this and other issues A CEOE with whom Yolanda Díaz has maintained a tense struggle since the beginning of the political course. Today, the employers have officially responded to the criticism that the second vice president has launched at them for getting up from the salary negotiations table and blocking the agreements. In a statement, the CEOE affirms that it never left the negotiating table and that "it would be desirable to generate from the institutions an environment favorable to reaching agreements in a way that avoids social conflict and not make statements that favor tension".
It is a direct reference to Yolanda Díaz, who has replied that "what stresses Spanish society is not only not making ends meet, but also having a loss of purchasing power, as today they are having 17 million employees." In addition, she has asked the CEOE to "return to the table and sit down to negotiate."
The vice president continues to point to the employers as guilty of blocking the agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC), and clearly places herself on the side of the unions.
