CONFIRMED: Spain to increase minimum wage by €54 a month
Spain’s Labour Ministry has reached an agreement with the country’s unions to raise the minimum wage in 2024 by €54 per month over 14 payments.
After several weeks of talks, Spain has a new minimum wage for the new year.
It represents a 5 percent increase, taking the minimum interprofessional wage up to €1,134 gross over 14 payments, 12 monthly ones and two extra ones as is customary in Spain.
That means that in real terms the minimum wage increase per month for 2024 is €63, and the minimum monthly wage (if seen as 12 payments instead of 14) is €1,323 gross.
Minimum earners will receive a total of €15,876 in 2024, €756 more compared to the previous year.
Spain’s Ministry of Labour and Social Economy agreed to the minimum wage rise with unions UGT and CCOO on Friday morning, even though Spain’s business association CEOE had pulled out of the talks after the government didn’t accept its conditions.
“Putting up the minimum wage is the best policy against inequality,” Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz, who is also leader of hard-left junior coalition partner Sumar, tweeted alongside a graph showing how Spain’s minimum wage has been increased from €736 in 2018.
Subir el SMI es la mejor política contra la desigualdad. Conseguimos, junto a sindicatos, un aumento del 5%.
Mejoramos la vida de la gente trabajadora, especialmente mujeres y jóvenes. Subir los salarios no destruye empleo, nos hace un país mejor. pic.twitter.com/GTcIsODEA2
— Yolanda Díaz (@Yolanda_Diaz_) January 12, 2024
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also took to X to celebrate the news, highlighting that Spain's minimum wage has been up by 54 percent since he and his Socialist Party took control in 2018.
Vamos a subir el Salario Mínimo Interprofesional un 5%, hasta los 1.134 euros. Un incremento que beneficiará a cerca de 2,5 millones de trabajadores, sobre todo a jóvenes y mujeres.
Desde el 2018, el SMI ha subido un 54%. Es la mejor herramienta para combatir la pobreza laboral… pic.twitter.com/0K17oQGdqi
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) January 12, 2024
For this part, the head of the CEOE Antonio Garamendi has argued that this latest wage increase could cause a “slowdown in the economy and employment” and that it has been “arbitrarily” implemented instead of it being based on technical criteria as the law states.
The last minimum wage increase in February 2023 was of 8 percent, taking it up to €1,080 over 14 payments.
Following Friday's agreement, the rise of the SMI (the acronym for minimum wage in Spain) has to now be greenlighted by the Spanish Cabinet on January 23rd.
Once the legislation has completed its approval through the courts, it will have a retroactive effect running from January 1st 2024, so minimum earners will be paid the extra money that’s owed to them in future payslips.
An estimated 2.5 million workers in Spain will benefit from the salary hike, mainly young people and women, according to government sources.
Even with its increase to €1,323 per month (over 12 months), Spain’s minimum wage is still considerably lower than France’s (€1,747), Germany’s (€1,997) or Ireland’s (€1,909).
After tax, a person earning Spain's new gross minimum wage of €1,134 will get around €990 a month net (30 years old, single and no children).
Hospitality, cleaning and jobs in old age care are among the worst paid in Spain.
Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz plans to raise Spain's minimum wage again in 2025.
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After several weeks of talks, Spain has a new minimum wage for the new year.
It represents a 5 percent increase, taking the minimum interprofessional wage up to €1,134 gross over 14 payments, 12 monthly ones and two extra ones as is customary in Spain.
That means that in real terms the minimum wage increase per month for 2024 is €63, and the minimum monthly wage (if seen as 12 payments instead of 14) is €1,323 gross.
Minimum earners will receive a total of €15,876 in 2024, €756 more compared to the previous year.
Spain’s Ministry of Labour and Social Economy agreed to the minimum wage rise with unions UGT and CCOO on Friday morning, even though Spain’s business association CEOE had pulled out of the talks after the government didn’t accept its conditions.
“Putting up the minimum wage is the best policy against inequality,” Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz, who is also leader of hard-left junior coalition partner Sumar, tweeted alongside a graph showing how Spain’s minimum wage has been increased from €736 in 2018.
Subir el SMI es la mejor política contra la desigualdad. Conseguimos, junto a sindicatos, un aumento del 5%.
— Yolanda Díaz (@Yolanda_Diaz_) January 12, 2024
Mejoramos la vida de la gente trabajadora, especialmente mujeres y jóvenes. Subir los salarios no destruye empleo, nos hace un país mejor. pic.twitter.com/GTcIsODEA2
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also took to X to celebrate the news, highlighting that Spain's minimum wage has been up by 54 percent since he and his Socialist Party took control in 2018.
Vamos a subir el Salario Mínimo Interprofesional un 5%, hasta los 1.134 euros. Un incremento que beneficiará a cerca de 2,5 millones de trabajadores, sobre todo a jóvenes y mujeres.
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) January 12, 2024
Desde el 2018, el SMI ha subido un 54%. Es la mejor herramienta para combatir la pobreza laboral… pic.twitter.com/0K17oQGdqi
For this part, the head of the CEOE Antonio Garamendi has argued that this latest wage increase could cause a “slowdown in the economy and employment” and that it has been “arbitrarily” implemented instead of it being based on technical criteria as the law states.
The last minimum wage increase in February 2023 was of 8 percent, taking it up to €1,080 over 14 payments.
Following Friday's agreement, the rise of the SMI (the acronym for minimum wage in Spain) has to now be greenlighted by the Spanish Cabinet on January 23rd.
Once the legislation has completed its approval through the courts, it will have a retroactive effect running from January 1st 2024, so minimum earners will be paid the extra money that’s owed to them in future payslips.
An estimated 2.5 million workers in Spain will benefit from the salary hike, mainly young people and women, according to government sources.
Even with its increase to €1,323 per month (over 12 months), Spain’s minimum wage is still considerably lower than France’s (€1,747), Germany’s (€1,997) or Ireland’s (€1,909).
After tax, a person earning Spain's new gross minimum wage of €1,134 will get around €990 a month net (30 years old, single and no children).
Hospitality, cleaning and jobs in old age care are among the worst paid in Spain.
Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz plans to raise Spain's minimum wage again in 2025.
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