The Ministry of Labor and the UGT and CCOO unions, but not the employers' associations, have agreed this Thursday to raise the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI). 1,221 euros gross in 14 paymentsThis represents a 3.1% increase compared to 2025. It's a rise of 37 euros per month, as announced by the Secretary of State for Labor, Joaquín Pérez Rey. The Council of Ministers will soon approve the salary increase, which will be retroactive to January 1st of this year. The employers' associations CEOE and Cepyme have distanced themselves from the agreement and rejected the increase, as anticipated in the statement released Thursday morning, in which they labeled the tax deduction in corporate income tax for the companies most affected by the pay increase as "deceptive" and "interventionist." According to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Labor and the unions agree that this salary level will remain exempt from personal income tax.

Correction: the minimum wage (SMI) will not be subject to income tax (IRPF), as initially planned by the Ministry of Finance after the latest increase, something that was later corrected. The Congress's Economic Commission approved this Tuesday the law on civil liability and insurance in the circulation of motor vehicles, a text in which the PSOE, Sumar, and BNG introduced an amendment to exempt those earning the SMI from income tax and correct an error that prevented at least 20% of this group from doing so.

Inflation in the years immediately following the pandemic eroded household purchasing power, and in most advanced economies, wages have yet to recover. According to a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, the umbrella organization of the world's major developed economies), by the third quarter of last year, wages had recovered to the purchasing power they had in 2020 in only 12 of the 33 most advanced countries.

The announcement of the increase in the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI) by 50 euros to reach 1,184 euros gross per month in 14 payments has come with a surprise: it turns out that for the first time a part of its recipients will have to pay taxes to the Treasury, something that had never happened before. Previous increases in the SMI were always accompanied by adjustments in the exempt minimum to avoid the IRPF eating up part of the increase. However, on this occasion it is estimated that 20% of recipients, half a million people throughout the State, will have to pay part of that money to the Treasury. Specifically, these are single people without children, who depending on the autonomous community of residence will have to return to the Treasury up to half of the increase, as is the case of Catalonia. That is, unlike the remaining 80%, their real increase could be reduced to 25 euros per month.

Employer association Foment del Treball has changed its tune regarding wages. If only a month ago the Catalan employers' association defended "moderation" of salaries in the midst of a record rise in inflation, today it has stated that salaries have to rise so that workers do not lose purchasing power. "Not only the minimum wage has to go up, but all wages," said the president of Foment, Josep Sánchez Llibre, in an interview on La 2 - Ràdio 4. Wages "have to be competitive and people have to earn a living," added Llibre.

Probably more as a delaying tactic than out of conviction, but this Thursday the Spanish employers' association CEOE has opened a debate that until now has been taboo for the social partners: the possibility of the minimum wage being different depending on the territory. The president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, has argued it in a very simple way by recalling that collective agreements have a provincial scope, and that a worker in the metal sector in Vizcaya does not earn the same as one in Murcia, or even one in Guipúzcoa. "In areas such as Madrid and Barcelona, the cost of living has little to do with other parts of Spain", Garamendi said in an interview.