Spain: 8% increase in the minimum wage announced by the government

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“We are going to approve a new increase in the minimum wage of 8% to reach 1,080 euros” gross per month for a period of 14 months, announced Pedro Sánchez

Spain’s centre-left government will go ahead with a further 8% increase in the minimum wage, despite opposition from employers, the prime minister announced today Pedro Sanchezat a time marked by high inflation.

“We are going to approve a new increase in the minimum wage of 8% to reach 1,080 euros” gross per month for 14 months, as the salary is traditionally paid 14 months in the country, Socialist Sanchez announced during a debate in the Senate.

“So we are keeping our commitment” to raise the minimum wage “to 60% of the average wage” by the end of the legislative period in late 2023,” he continued.

Over a period of 12 months, the minimum wage will now amount to 1,260 euros gross.

The unions, which had requested 1,100 euros over 14 months, expressed their satisfaction.

This increase “will benefit 2.5 million people and will particularly affect women, young people, workers on fixed-term contracts or those working in the agricultural sector or services,” he said on Twitter. Unai Sordogeneral secretary of the Commissions Ouvrieres (CCOO), one of the two largest trade unions in the country.

For its part, the employers refused to participate in today’s negotiations, saying they did not take into account their concerns.

“All they did was give us the number” of the increase for approval, quipped employers’ union CEOE president Antonio Garametti.

This new minimum wage increase comes at a time of high inflation, even if price rises have slowed significantly in recent months. Inflation stood at 5.8% in January, after peaking at 10.8% in July, the highest rate since records began 38 years ago.

Sanchez, who wants to raise Spain’s minimum wage to the level of its European neighbours, underlined that this wage will have increased overall, after this new increase, by 36% since he took office in 2018, when it was 735 euro, one of the lowest in Europe.

THE Spain this year it will hold municipal and regional elections at the end of May and parliamentary elections at the end of the year.

RES-EMP

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