Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announces new minimum wage in Spain

A new minimum wage for workers in Spain has been announced by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

Pedro Sanchez, the Prime Minister of Spain, today Tuesday, January 31, announced that a new minimum wage will be enforced in the country in 2023. It will rise to €1,080 gross per month in 14 payments. The increase will be applied in two weeks’ time and will benefit some 2.5 million workers, especially women, he added.

This was confirmed during his speech in the Senate, after Labour Minister, Yolanda Diaz, met earlier this morning with the General Secretaries of the UGT, Pepe Alvarez, CCOO, and Unai Sordo trade unions. Representatives of the CEOE declined to attend.

The unions were demanding a minimum be set to €1,100, while Diaz advocated the high band of the expert committee report that proposed a rise for 2023 of between 4.6 per cent and 8.2 per cent.

Sanchez highlighted in his speech that: “Since we are in the Executive we are the second country in the OECD that has increased the SMI the most. Our fight to improve the conditions of workers and achieve a fairer distribution has just begun”.

The CEOE explained that in December it had already informed the Ministry of its approach to the SMI without receiving any response. The employers’ association maintained that the minimum wage should rise by 4 per cent, to €1,040 gross per month in 14 payments.

This was subject to establishing a system of deductions applicable to the agricultural sector and to modifying the regulations on price revisions in public sector contracts in order to be able to pass on the increase in the SMI in contracts in execution they specified.

Yolanda Diaz showed how satisfied she was with the rise. “I am very happy, not for the Government, but for the workers. The Government of Spain fulfils one of its main commitments, which was to reach 60 per cent of the average salary in the SMI”.

After his announcement, Sanchez went on to reproach some large companies that increase their profits, pay millionaire dividends, “but do not increase the salary of their employees. If a company earns €600 million, why does that profit end up only in the hands of a few?”.

Why was some not going to the “shop assistants, administrative staff, or stockers? Do they not also have merit in this business success? I think so”, Sanchez reiterated, as reported by 20minutos.es.

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