The Minimum Interprofessional Wage will return to 2023 levels: Will I earn less next month?

The Minimum Interprofessional Wage will return to 2023 levels: Will I earn less next month?

This Wednesday, Congress repealed the omnibus decree that provisionally extended the validity of the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI) of 2024 until a new amount is approved for 2025. This decision has generated uncertainty among many workers, who They not only wonder if the SMI will rise next yearbut also if could be reduced to 2023 levelswhen it was set at 1,080 euros per month.

To answer all these unknowns we must go in parts. First, currently, the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI) It is set at 1.1334 euros per month in 14 payments or 1.323 euros in 12 payments (with the two extended extraordinary payments) which is 15,876 euros annually. This increase was approved under Royal Decree 145/2024, in order to comply with article 27.1 of the Workers’ Statute, which requires the annual review of the SMI taking into account factors such as the consumer price index, average national productivity and the current situation. general economic.

Now, with the repeal of the omnibus decree, the legal security that this norm was intended to guarantee has been left in the air. The rule sought to automatically extend the 2024 SMI while a new agreement was reached for 2025. This meant consolidating the approved increase, avoiding any legal loophole that could put the minimum wage at risk guaranteed for workers. In the absence of said explicit extension, some sectors have raised doubts about whether the SMI could return to previous levels, such as 1,080 euros in 2023.

The Minimum Interprofessional Wage is frozen

The government has made it clear that, although the omnibus decree has not been validated, the 2024 SMI continues to be valid until a new amount is approved for 2025. That is, there will be no salary reductions for those workers who earn the minimum wage. .

This is so, since Spanish labor legislation, supported by the Article 35 of the Spanish Constitution and Article 27 of the Workers’ Statute guarantee the existence of a minimum wage at all times.. Thus, as long as new regulations are not published, the SMI approved for 2024 will serve as a legal floor that cannot be reduced.

Furthermore, as explained to Newtral Jesús Cruz Villalón, professor of Labor Law, there is no room for a return to the 1,080 euros in 2023 nor is there a “legal loophole” that eliminates the minimum wage. Likewise, the General Directorate of Labor and the CCOO union emphasize that all hiring, including new ones, must have as a reference the figure of 1,134 euros in 14 payments until the new SMI for 2025 is approved.

The omnibus decree intended to offer a framework of stability to ensure that hired workers were guaranteed the same minimum wage as those who were already active. Without this, although legally the 2024 SMI is maintained, the repeal of the rule leaves a lot of uncertainty, especially for workers and pensioners.

Can the omnibus decree be approved again once suspended?

No. Once repealed by Congress, the same norm cannot be revalidated in the exact terms in which it was presented. The Government, however, has the possibility of recover part of its provisions —including that related to the SMI— through independent bills or other decrees. This procedure, however, could take several months, raising doubts about the evolution of the amounts for 2025.

On the one hand, workers will not know with certainty whether the minimum wage will be subject to a new increase and, on the other, it is feared that pensioners could see their benefits modified upwards or downwards if other measures included in the defunct decree do not succeed. . For now, the only certainty is that The amount for 2024 (1,134 euros per month in 14 payments) cannot be reduced to the levels of 2023being protected by current labor legislation.