Labor has not yet summoned employers and unions to review the salary floor for 2022, with only a Council of Ministers in January of margin
If the labour reform was resolved in stoppage time of 2021, negotiations to update the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI) this 2022 are also waiting and are heading, at the earliest, to the last week of January. The Government does not yet have tied the necessary balances in the Congress so that one of its star regulations passes the parliamentary process and this is delaying the opening of the talks to review the salary floor for this year.
“It will rise again in January”, was the will expressed in public by the second vice president, Yolanda Diaz, after approving the labor reform. And that said increase would be retroactive to day one of the same month. From the Ministry of Labor they have insisted for days that the table with employers and unions will meet “shortly”, but at the moment the social agents do not have an official call in the absence of a single Minister council before the end of the month (the date for January 25).
In December, the Executive extended the current minimum wage of 965 euros per month (in 14 payments), with the intention of reopening talks with employers and unions during the month of January. “The call has to arrive immediately. In October the Government promised us to have closed this month that the SMI rise to 1,000 euros“, affirm trade union sources consulted. “We will not accept delays or discounts,” they add.
And it is that although the labor reform is now settled in Congress and the minimum wage must channel the mandatory process of prior consultation at the social dialogue table, the negotiating teams of the Ministry of Labor are absorbed in solving the puzzle of the first matter. Almost two million workers who currently receive the SMI are pending how this second question ends up being resolved. Its coverage is especially common among the pawns of the sector agriculturalas well as among salaried food deliverers at home, domestic workerscleaning staff, security guards or certain profiles within the hostelry.
The precedent of 2021 generates certain concerns in the union caucus, since Díaz’s promise in January to immediately raise the SMI was delayed 10 months, given the internal divisions in the coalition. The most conservative sectors of the same leaned then on the lack of support from the bosses and the uncertain macroeconomic perspectives to postpone the increase. 10 months later and with Spain breaking employment records, the Executive finally decided to raise the SMI despite the business rejection.
The employer is not in a hurry
From the patronal They are not in a hurry to address this matter, because if the Government complies with the verbal commitment reached with the unions, this would translate into more work expenses for the companies. At a time, according to business sources consulted, in which social contributions have risen -after the latest pension reform- and in which the new contribution system for freelancers according to their net returns and that can cause part of the group -especially those with higher incomes- to have to pay more installments.
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In October 2021, the Government approved only with the unions and with the unchecking of the employers’ association the increase in the minimum wage for last year. An increase of 15 euros -from 950 to 965 euros- which was in effect for 3 months of last year and which represented a rise of 1.6%, almost half of what inflation ended up rising for the year, which according to the consolidated CPI data for December was set at 3.1% on average. In other words, the almost two million workers who receive the SMI lost purchasing power last year. In a proportion similar to that of workers covered by collective agreements, who saw their salaries rise by 1.5% on average. The unions urge the Government to materialize the new increase so that the current inflationary spiral does not further reduce the purchasing power of said employees and take advantage of this increase in the SMI to exert upward pressure on the next salary negotiations.
If the Executive complies with the path marked out by its committee of experts on matters of the SMI, the next increase should reach the €996, that is, an increase of 31 euros or 3.2%. A level similar to the one that closed the average inflation last year, but below the CPI 6.5% registered in the month of December. And continue this path until reaching 1,027 euros in 2023, with the prospect that the SMI is equivalent to 60% of the average salary in Spain.