BarcelonaThe Spanish government presented this Wednesday its proposal to increase the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI) of 50 euros per month, which has for the moment been met with the silence of employers and the demands of the unions to raise it even more.
The headquarters of the Ministry of Labor hosted the two meetings simultaneously. On the one hand, the two ministers and, on the other, the Secretary of State for Labour, Joaquín Pérez Rey, have met as part of the Social Dialogue Table with representatives of the CEOE employer and the majority unions , Workers’ Commissions (CCOO) and UGT, to which the government’s proposal to increase the monthly minimum wage by 50 euros to 1,184 euros (in 14 payments per year) has been officially transferred, an increase of 4.4% compared to the current one.
The response from the unions has not been positive at first, but the Secretary of State has insisted that the government’s proposal is “flexible” with the desire to reach an agreement with the social agents, although in principle the ‘state executive does not need any agreement with social agents to approve changes to the minimum wage.
The unions see the increase presented by the executive as insufficient because it does not place the SMI at 60% of the average salary in Spain, which is the minimum set by the European Social Charter, of which Spain is a signatory. UGT and CCOO have insisted that the minimum wage should be “more or less” 1,200 euros per month in 14 payments, which would mean an increase of 5% or 6%.
As for the employer, the CEOE has not provided any counter-proposal and will announce its position on January 22, when the three parties will meet again to reach “a definitive agreement” on the increase in the SMI , as explained by Pérez Rey.
Discussions on the taxation of the SMI
One of the doubts hovering over the increase in the minimum wage proposed by the Ministry of Labor is what would happen to the taxation of workers. According to Pérez Rey, the ministry led by Yolanda Díaz considers that this increase should be exempt from personal income tax, as is currently the case with the SMI, but for this to happen it would be necessary to modify the minimum exempted to pay this tax, which has to decide the Ministry of Finance.
“The Ministry of Labor is not competent to establish the taxation of wages”, recalled Pérez Rey, who added that this is “an exclusive competence of the Ministry of Finance”. Now, number two of Treball considers that “the interprofessional minimum wage must be the place from which taxation begins”. “We understand that, just as it has been done on other occasions, the minimum exempt from personal income tax must evolve in the same way that the SMI evolves”, Pérez Rey pointed out, an idea that agrees with the opinion of the trade unions
Cuerpo and Díaz are stuck because of the reduction in working hours
In parallel to the meeting for the SMI, the Ministers of Economy and Labor have met to, a priori, approximate positions regarding the reduction of working hours. Díaz and Cuerpo have agreed that the issue will be addressed on January 27 within the framework of the Government Delegated Commission for Economic Affairs (CDGAE), a coordinating body between ministries where the issues that must end in the council of ministers
On this occasion, the two government departments have agreed that they will work to bring the proposal to the council of ministers “as soon as possible”. This would unlock, a priori, the “veto” on the measure that Díaz denounced that the Ministry of Economy was exercising.
This Monday, Cuerpo and Díaz had already met to iron out differences after the head of Labor described the head of Economy as a “bad person” for the doubts expressed about the agreement that Díaz had reached last December with the unions – but with the CEOE’s refusal to reduce the working week from 40 to 37.5 hours. Díaz is in favor of making this cut in working hours mandatory for all companies and approving it as soon as possible, but Cuerpo prefers to study the measure in more detail and opens the door to introduce exceptions for smaller companies.
Source: www.ara.cat
