The Ministry of Labour proposes to raise the minimum wage by 5.3% in 2027, to €1,286 gross per month. Economist Javier Santacruz warns that the increase hits freelancers and small businesses hard.
According to COPE's programme 'La Linterna', the Ministry of Labour proposes to increase the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI) by 5.3% in 2027, to €1,286 gross per month in 14 payments. The current minimum wage stands at €1,221 gross monthly.
Economist Javier Santacruz believes that the measure harms a large part of the productive fabric. In his words, "every increase in the minimum wage represents a higher cost of labour in Spain."
Every increase in the minimum wage represents a higher cost of labour in Spain
Santacruz argues that the increase particularly affects young people, freelancers, and small businesses, which must allocate a larger portion of their costs to salaries and contributions. According to the economist, the total cost per worker approaches €2,000 per month.
On the fiscal front, the Ministry of Finance would need to raise the deduction for employment income in the IRPF by more than 70%, from €590 to nearly €1,030 annually, for the new SMI to be exempt from withholding.
The deputy director of ABC, Yolanda Gómez, also participated in the analysis and described the measure as "totally electoral." She explained that with a 3% increase, the goal of 60% of the average salary could likely have been achieved.
Gómez pointed out that, in practice, the increase is borne by families hiring people for household work and SMEs, while large companies have very few minimum wage workers. She added that there are increasingly more workers in Spain earning very close to the SMI.
It’s very easy to say, I invite you to pay
The journalist warned that many SMEs and families, unable to afford a full-time position at the new wage, would opt to reduce their workers' hours. She illustrated this with an example:
If you can't pay this salary for 8 hours of work, what SMEs and families do is, well, instead of 8 hours, we reduce it to 5, we reduce it to 6 to cope with this
The increase is still a proposal from the Ministry of Labour for 2027, so the final amount will depend on its approval.
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