Approval of the Minimum Interprofessional Salary 2022. On February 9, 2022, the Government agreed with the trade unions to increase the minimum interprofessional salary (SMI) for the current year. The SMI will go up by €35 gross per month (around 3.63%), thus reaching €1,000 per month in 14 annual payments.
The increase will come into effect when it is published in the Official State Gazette (BOE). It will be retroactive as from January 1, 2022.
Minimum Interprofessional Salary 2022
First of all, let us define what the SMI is. It is the minimum amount of remuneration that a company is obliged to pay to its employees for the work they have performed during a given period. The weekly minimum wage is 40 hours of effective work, as established in Article 34.1 of the Workers’ Statute.
The minimum daily salary is set at €33.33, the monthly salary is set at €1,000 and the annual salary is set at €14,000, divided into 14 payments. In the case of temporary and seasonal workers, the minimum daily wage will be €47.36. Consequently, domestic workers will be paid at a minimum of €7.82 per hour of work.
The increase will affect all workers who in annual computation earn less than €14,000 if they work full time. If they work part-time, it will have to be calculated proportionally to the working day. The aforementioned increase must be applied automatically.
The beneficiary groups will be those who do not have a collective bargaining agreement that regulates their labor relationship and are receiving the SMI. Such as, for example, the group of domestic employees. On the other hand, all those workers whose collective bargaining agreements currently contain salaries lower than the new minimum interprofessional wage will also benefit. These workers will also see their salaries increased without the need for new salary tables to be published in the collective bargaining agreement.
Finally, it should be noted that internship contracts, which are below the new minimum interprofessional wage on an annual basis, will also see an increase in their payroll.
Increase in minimum contribution bases and benefits
The minimum contribution bases are increased by the same percentage as the increase in the minimum interprofessional wage. Consequently, this implies an increase in the amount of the minimum contribution. Consequently, as the collection of contributions increases, the amount of benefits for those workers who pay the minimum contribution will also increase.
Therefore, taking into account the increases, the minimum Social Security contribution base will be €1,166 per month. After applying the same increase as for the SMI.
Unemployment benefits
The new SMI also applies to the requirements for access to unemployment benefits such as the RAI (Renta Activa de Inserción). Its conditions include not receiving incomes higher than 75% of the minimum interprofessional wage. This means that the limit for accessing these benefits increases. Also included in the category of unemployment benefits is the benefit for the exhaustion of contributory benefits. As well as the aid for people over 52 years of age.
Adverse effects of the minimum salary increase
The increase in the minimum wage does not have the support of business organizations, which prefer to wait to consolidate the economic recovery. Specifically, CEOE and CEPYME have rejected the measure since they consider that the economic context is marked by “uncertainty”.
The CEOE estimates that the total cost per employee would exceed €1,500 in general terms. In addition, some sectors have criticized the measure as it could affect the self-employed and small companies, which will see their salary costs rise.
