The wages are being one of the main victims of the spiral inflationary caused by the end of the restrictions and the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Although in 2022 they have risen more than other years, the pressure of prices has greatly exceeded them, causing the vast majority of workers to have lost purchasing power. 2022 will close as the worst year in decades for the pockets of employees. For 2023, the forecasts are that the upward inertia will continue and that inflation will continue to slow down, which would allow that gap to narrow. However, any rebound in price increases could cause next year to once again be a year that makes the majority of workers poorer. In terms of employment, the labor market will continue to grow and will do so faster than the economy will grow. While employees as a whole are likely to be paid less, more employees will be paid.
The wages Up to now they have been the main pagans of the inflationary crisis that the Western economies are experiencing. The latest available collective bargaining statistics show that wages are growing at a rate of 2.957%, compared to a CPI that in December stood at 5.85. A loss of purchasing power that forecasts anticipate that it will be cut, although more because of the drop in inflation than because of a much more vigorous increase in salaries.
2 How will wages evolve in 2023?
According to the preliminary calculations of the Social Security to anticipate income, salaries in the private sector will grow around 3.5% next year. The same increase for officials that from the Ministry of Finance and Public Function agreed with the unions. Other sources, such as the recently published study by the consultancy Ceinsapoint to a wage increase for all wage earners of 3.1% on average, more accentuated among basic personnel and less in middle and managerial positions.
3 What will happen to the minimum wage?
The increase of interprofessional minimum wage It has not yet been defined for next year and the Government has both the employer’s and the unions’ proposal on the table, without having yet defined the issue. The Executive has extended the current one until there is an agreement within the framework of social dialogue. Entrepreneurs advocate moving from the current 1,000 euros gross per month (in 14 payments) at 1,040 euros, although for this they demand subsidies for agricultural corporations and that the Administration allows said salary increase to be passed on to their contracts. For their part, the unions claim to reach 1,100 euros and are not willing to sign any lower increase than that of pensions (+8.5%).
The Government, which has to overcome another year of internal divisions between the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Labor on this issue, has not yet ruled. The second vice president Yolanda Diazadvanced that his intention is to approve the increase in the minimum wage with retroactive effect to January 1, 2023.
4 How has employment evolved this year?
The working market Spain has ended 2022 with unexpected resistance for many once the price crisis and the lack of supplies and materials in certain strategic sectors began to worsen. In the absence of definitive data for December, Spain will close the year with 20.2 million employed people, almost 650,000 more than when the year began. Never before in the history of Spain have there been so many workers working at the same time. Virtually all sectors have recovered their employment levels prior to the pandemic and the quality of said employment has improved since the entry into force of the labor reform, gaining in volume of wage earners with indefinite contracts.
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On the contrary, the unemployment It continues to go down, although it does so at a slow pace. Spain continues to be the European Union country with the highest number of unemployed people, some 2.9 million.
5 How will employment evolve in 2023?
The prospects for next year are good. The Government anticipates a growth of 2.9%, above the forecasts for the evolution of GDP and which would place the total number of employed at 21 million workers; a new historical record. The temporary work agency randstad agrees that employment will continue to grow, although at a slower rate than anticipated by the Executive. According to his calculations, two out of three companies will increase their workforces and 2023 will close with 20.6 million employees and an unemployment rate of 13.2%.