The employers’ associations CEOE and Cepyme They propose to increase the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI) by 1.5% next year.. A figure that employers consider reasonable given that, according to their calculations, the SMI would already be higher than 60% of the country’s average salary (the reference pursued by the Ministry of Labor). This was communicated by the employers’ organizations after holding an extraordinary Executive Committee on Tuesday during which this approach was established.
With the proposal of businessmen, The minimum wage would be 16,824 euros gross annually in 2026. In other words, the lowest remuneration that could be paid by law would amount to 1,202 euros gross per month in 14 full-time payments. 17.7 euros more for each monthly payment than in 2025 (248 euros more per year).
The offer launched by the business sector would remain below the inflation expected for 2025 (around 2.7% on average), these incomes would therefore lose purchasing power if they finally saw the light of day. In the same vein, the increase proposed by the businessmen is lower than the one they proposed last year, when they were open to an increase in the SMI of 3%.
It must also be taken into account that, in the event that the Treasury imposes the minimum wage, a notable part of the increase would be devoted to paying personal income taxwhich would further dilute the increase that CEOE and Cepyme put on the table this Tuesday.
The figures managed by the organization chaired by Antonio Garamendi are the opposite of what the unions are proposing. The UGT and the Workers’ Commissions agreed last month to put on the table an increase in the minimum wage of 7.5%, which would bring this income to 1,273 euros gross per month in 14 full-time payments (17,822 euros per year).
All indications are that the increase ultimately approved will be somewhere in the middle of this broad threshold. The Ministry of Labor led by Yolanda Díaz has not yet put a figure on the table. He is waiting for the expert committee appointed by the second vice president to submit its report before making a statement.
However, Labor has already made it clear that the approved increase cannot be lower than the rise in consumer prices (estimates suggest that inflation will close at around 2.7% in 2025) and that it must take into account the situation of economic expansion that Spain finds itself in (most analysts predict a GDP increase of around 2.9% this year). In addition, the department headed by Yolanda Díaz clarified that if the SMI began paying personal income tax, it would apply a greater increase than if it continued not paying taxes.
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