According to a recent report by Cepyme, Spanish SMEs have seen their operating costs skyrocket by 26% since 2019, especially in micro-enterprises, due to materials (+35%), services (+7%), and labor costs (+25.7% in small and micro-enterprises, +19.8% in medium-sized enterprises). This reality has slowed job creation: in the first quarter of 2025, SMEs grew by only 1.9%, the lowest figure in four years.
SMEs, along with the self-employed, make up more than 98% of the Spanish business community and generate around 62% of private sector employment. Together, they represent nearly half of GDP. This numerical reality reveals that the health of microenterprises is the health of our economy: if the self-employed and SMEs fail, the entire productive structure suffers.
The Cepyme report warns of the weight of the workload and obligations that arise when deciding to sign a new employment contract. The commitments made are, precisely because of their magnitude, unattainable. One of the greatest burdens occurs when an employee is on sick leave. In a structure of only four people, one or two prolonged sick leaves can overwhelm the company.
I recall the case of an SME with four employees where two people on sick leave forced the remaining two to take on the work and billing of the other four. They couldn't even consider hiring two more people because they had to continue paying a large portion of the salaries of those on sick leave. This created an organizational bottleneck that was almost impossible to sustain, which increased the risk of closure.
At the beginning of the year, we learned that large companies paid an effective corporate tax rate of around 7%. The general nominal rate for SMEs is between 21% and 24%. This figure should leave no one indifferent. The same applies to treasury. SMEs must advance taxes on unpaid invoices and lack the capacity to finance them, unlike large companies.
Legal deadlines for payment are a dead letter, and SMEs, when working for larger companies, must endure payment periods of up to four or five months. In short, the foundation of our economy—SMEs and the self-employed—is at its limit. It is essential that public policies be sensitive to this reality and that small businesses be freed from so much workload and tax and financial pressure. We cannot demand more from the engine of our economy.
