Yolanda Díaz, Second Vice President of the Government and Minister of Labor and Social Economy. Eduardo Parra / Europa Press
The Government finalizes the increase of the interprofessional minimum wage in about 15 euros per month from September 1, as confirmed by government sources. This is the intermediate range of the range of between 12 euros and 19 euros proposed by the committee of experts convened by the Government to design a path of increases in the minimum wage to reach 60% of the average salary in 2023, something that Brussels recommends and what Pedro Sánchez has committed to. The increase, which will leave the minimum wage at 965 euros per month in 14 payments, is still pending the final agreement with the unions, who want guarantees that next year it will increase to 1,000 euros. The employer's association has already expressed its rejection of any improvement this year and has ruled out joining the social agreement.
"We are working to close it, but there is nothing agreed right now," explain government sources, who specify that the approval of the unions is still being sought. They confirm that a rise is being negotiated that would be around 15 euros, because it would be a salary improvement similar to that which is taking place in collective agreements. The ball is now in the court of the unions, which are resisting for the moment to sign anything without guarantees that next year it will rise to 1,000 euros. Government sources hope to close the pact in the next few hours. "At this moment there is no closed agreement on SMI", Unai Sordo, leader of the Workers' Commissions, explained this Thursday."The CCOO proposal is to have a rise this year and specify the commitments so that the 2021 rise is within a rising path also for 2022 and 2023," he defended. "There is still no agreement because we are passing papers and because the rise in the SMI is not linked to the path of milestones for 2022 and 2023", insisted Sordo, who added that "it depends on whether the agreement is closed or not. throughout today ”.
The economic vice president, Nadia Calviño, has also cooled down the expectations of an agreement this Thursday: "At this time there is no agreement, we are going to let the talks continue so that in the next few days we make the decision, which is the responsibility of the Government" .
Along with the final amount, another of the unknowns to solve will be from when the raise is applied.
Calviño was betting that it would come into force from October, while Díaz had shown his commitment so that the increase in the minimum wage was approved retroactively from September 1.
Government sources explain that this detail will not derail the negotiation and believe that it will be closed from September.
The Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, during the act of commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the launch of Amazon.com. In video, statements by Maroto about the increase in the professional minimum wage.EFE
The rise, however, means unlocking a decision that had confronted the two government partners: United We Can, through the second vice president and Minister of Labor, defended for months that the minimum wage had to be raised since January, as well that was done with the improvements to civil servants and pensioners.
On the other hand, Nadia Calviño, First Vice President and Minister of Economic Affairs, considered that it was necessary to wait for the economic recovery to take shape and the employment data to show some vigor before adopting any decision that could disturb the economic reactivation.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, broke the tie this summer after the good performance of the labor market.
At the beginning of September, he assured that the rise in the SMI would be "imminent."
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This past Monday, the president said in an interview on RTVE: “We wanted to do it with the contest with the bosses, but it has not been possible.
The conditions are in place to continue with the SMI recovery path.
How much ?, as soon as possible and for how much ?, whatever is possible in this context and economic situation, within the limits of the experts ”, explained Sánchez.
Once the decision was unlocked, the only thing left to do was to decide the amount of the raise, the period and close an agreement with the social agents. But that is where the government has encountered certain difficulties. Yolanda Díaz restarted negotiations 10 days ago, but immediately realized that the employer's association was castled against the rise in the SMI this year. And that despite the fact that Trabajo lowered his aspirations and came to offer the employer a more lukewarm rise than he intended. The unions also threatened to leave the table if the Government did not guarantee that the minimum wage will rise to 1,000 euros in 2022. Finally, the rise occurs without the agreement of the employers, but it is expected to have the support of the unions.
The president of the employer's association, Antonio Garamendi, explained this Thursday on Antena 3: "There is a paradox, the State tells you 'I invite you to dinner, but you pay for dinner.'
There have been 11 major agreements and it is the first in which we are not.
They will see.
We have sat nonstop.
We have explained the positions.
Our position is clear.
We have made it clear that this is not the time to raise the minimum wage.
There will be less employment, more underground economy.
We can get the government to pay four million people ”.
Garamendi, asked if they had called him to inform him of the decision, said: “It was already known that they were going to go up.
The announcement was made last week.
We did not know the amount.
At the table, by the way, we have never been told what the raise was going to be ”.