The employers’ associations CEOE and Cepyme have taken a position regarding the negotiations that the Ministry of Labor is preparing to open to once again increase the inter-professional minimum wage. The CEOE executive committee agreed on Tuesday to propose an increase of 1.5% for the year 2026, which would mean reaching 16,824 euros gross per year. Thus, the SMI would be 1,202 euros gross per month in 14 monthly payments, or 18 euros more than currently. The average inflation rate over the last 12 months is 2.7%, more than a point above the employer approach. The ministry generally marks the price development as the minimum figure to increase the wage floor.
The associations chaired by Antonio Garamendi and Ángela de Miguel justify this proposal of 1.5% in the salary statistics of the Labor force survey (EPA), released a month ago with data from 2024. The logic of CEOE and Cepyme is as follows: the objective set by Labor is that the minimum wage represents at least 60% of the average net salary and, according to EPA data, employers consider that this level has already been reached.
“Official data from the EPA show that the SMI has already exceeded 60% of the average net salary that the Ministry of Labor uses as a determination criterion,” affirm the employers’ organizations in a joint press release. They estimate that this 60% amounts, on the basis of this INE record, to 15,760 euros gross per year. “In other words, the SMI (currently at 16,576 euros gross per year) would currently be 4.9% higher than what actually corresponds,” add the CEOE and Cepyme.
“That said, add the company representatives, if the SMI already exceeds 60% of the average salary according to the EPA, if the reference followed by the Ministry of Labor is accepted as good, no revaluation would be possible for the year 2026.” Despite this point, they indicate that the executive committee “decided to propose applying the said increase of 1.5%, which is in line with that planned for civil servants for next year.”
In the same spirit, the CEOE and Cepyme add that their approach is also “in line with the objectives of the European directive on the minimum wage when setting the SMI: promotion of collective bargaining, achievement of a decent standard of living, reduction of employee poverty, promotion of social cohesion and upward social convergence and reduction of the wage gap between men and women”.
“To respect collective bargaining, we condition this 1.5% increase on compliance with the absorption and compensation rules of the Workers’ Statute,” add the employers. This means that the approach of the CEOE and Cepyme is conditional on the fact that the Ministry of Labor does not respect the promise it made to the unions to avoid the absorption of bonuses with increases in the SMI. Yolanda Díaz’s department is committed to eliminating this possibility, which ends up mitigating the increase for some workers because their basic salary is increased but they lose part of the supplements.
The Ministry of Labor convened again this year a commission of experts, responsible for recommending the increase in the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI) to adjust it to 60% of the average net salary, so that the remuneration floor does not lose purchasing power or rate of increase compared to the rest of salaries. That recommendation is fast approaching, according to sources familiar with the deliberations of union experts, academics and the government itself.
But for now, employers are waiting for this recommendation as the unions were already doing. Two weeks ago, the centers submitted their proposal: the UGT and the CC OO demand that the SMI increase by 7.5% in 2026, up to 1,273 euros gross per month divided into 14 payments. Or 89 euros more per month than currently (1,184). Furthermore, they insisted that they would not accept an increase in the SMI if the government does not prevent companies from compensating for this increase by absorbing benefits.
(News in development. There will be an expansion soon)
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