Spain: employers’ organizations opposed to the schedule for the increase of the minimum wage agreed by government and unions

The Labour Department received, on Thursday, November 8, unions' proposition to increase the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI) to 81 Euros in 2012. This measure should be forwarded to the Spanish socialist party, which should include it into its electoral programme for the legislative elections in March 2008. If this party wins, the schedule for increasing the SMI will be one of the priorities of the social dialogue. The employers' confederation, CEOE, rose against this plan, judging that its would lead to an 8% increase of the global payroll, which would be unbearable for companies. (Ref. 070923)
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The current SMI is of 600 Euros a month on 14 months. Unions propose to bring it up to 816 Euros in 2012 and to 1.111 Euros in 2016. Employers’ organizations consider that this plan is unrealistic, especially in an unsure economic context. They figured that such an increase would have much too costly repercussions. They notably highlighted that the 29% increase of the minimum wage absorbed between 2004 and 2008 was only possible because of the difference between the official SMI and the minimum

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