Overview
- The Labour Ministry and unions CCOO and UGT sealed a 3.1% increase to €1,221 a month in 14 payments for 2026, leaving CEOE and Cepyme outside the accord.
- The Finance Ministry drafted a targeted corporate tax-base reduction for firms with personnel costs above 70% that hire workers paid over the SMI, with relief scaled by headcount growth.
- Tax relief would multiply the SMI increase by 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 or 1 depending on staff increases, require maintaining gains for two years, and trigger clawbacks with interest if conditions are not met.
- Employer groups rejected the fiscal plan as interventionist, decried its leak before formal tabling, and signaled complaints to the European Commission and the ILO; the offer was not formally presented at the meeting.
- Work has opened the SMI decree to public consultation with retroactive effect, affecting roughly 2.5 million workers, and a separate regulation will be used to block absorption of pay supplements.