The second vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, stated this Tuesday that the Government will undertake a “relevant” increase in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI) in 2026 if it is finally decided that this minimum income becomes taxable in personal income tax. This has been pointed out, implicitly alluding to the Ministry of Finance as the department that must make the decision.
Díaz explained in the press conference after the Council of Ministers that the CCOO and UGT proposal to raise the SMI by 7.5% in 2026, up to 1,273 euros per month, with taxation in personal income tax, “aligns” with the request that Labor transferred to the SMI advisory committee. That assignment consisted of proposing two increase scenarios: one in case the SMI is taxed and another if it is not, but always respecting that the final result is equivalent to 60% of the average salary, as established by the European Social Charter.
The increase must be considerable if the SMI is included in the personal income tax
The minister has insisted that, if it is decided to include the SMI in personal income tax, the increase must be considerable. “If it is with taxation, I already say that the increase will be relevant because, of course, it is very fiscally unfair that those salary incomes that are in a range of between 17,000 and 21,000 euros, their marginal rate is the same as that of a salary income of 100,000 euros, which is higher than 50%,” he explained.
In any case, Díaz has stressed that the intention of the Ministry of Labor is to guarantee compliance with the European Social Charter, whether it does not pay the SMI or if it does so in the end. In this last case, he stressed, the increase will be “greater.” He has advanced that he will also “request the two calculations from the commission of experts and then take them to the social dialogue table, and of course, yes, we are going to comply with the European Social Charter.