The Spanish government is offering civil servants a pay rise until 2028.

Madrid / BarcelonaThe Spanish government does not yet have a draft national budget for 2026. However, for public sector workers, this cannot be an obstacle to agreeing on a new salary increase for 2025. Normally, these salary increases are included in new public accounts. Civil servants have been pressuring Pedro Sánchez's government for days to take action – the main unions representing civil servants (CCOO, UGT, and CSIF) They have threatened a general strike This December—. For now, they have managed to get negotiations to resume this Wednesday with the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Administration, under the leadership of Óscar López (PSOE).

In this first meeting with the unions, the government conveyed its intention to propose a three-year agreement (2026-2028) with salary increases linked to a fixed and a variable component so that public employees "do not lose purchasing power." The previous agreement also included this variable component tied to economic indicators such as the gross domestic product (GDP) and the consumer price index (CPI). Although the unions expected to start putting figures on the table, López's team has not yet presented any percentages, nor how the salary increase for 2025 will be resolved.

of January 1 of this year. Due to scheduling conflicts, the next meeting will be next Tuesday, but negotiations will continue every Wednesday as usual. "This must be an agreement not only for the 3.5 million public sector workers, but also for public services and the citizens of the country. The feeling is good; we'll see how things progress," Araque stated.

Frozen Salaries

Part of the unions' discontent stems from the ministry's decision to downplay the possibility of raising public sector salaries in 2025, citing a lack of state funds. The current agreement was implemented in 2022 and expired in December 2024. Since then, salaries have been frozen, and therefore, the unions are demanding that the 2025 increase be applied retroactively. The agreement was reached after it was established that public sector salaries should rise in line with key economic indicators. This has resulted in a cumulative increase of 9.5% from 2022 to 2024. During the same period, the average gross annual salary for workers—which also includes public sector wages—has increased by approximately 13.1%.

This potential increase in public sector salaries could also be a catalyst for breaking the deadlock in negotiations between the CCOO and UGT unions and the Spanish employers' association, CEOE, for a new Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC). This guide for workers and companies when negotiating collective agreements also expires in 2025 and is another front that the social partners are currently addressing. Although the inflationary environment is less severe compared to recent years, the unions will push for a wage increase, especially considering housing prices, while the CEOE is focusing on issues such as absenteeism.