CEOE estimates that its proposal to raise the minimum wage by 1.5% would cost companies 862.5 million

In the midst of a war of figures over how much the minimum wage should rise, the employers have made a coup and have gone ahead of the Ministry of Labor by proposing a 1.5% increase for this income. The proposal, officially communicated by CEOE on Tuesday, twould have a cost of about 862.5 million eurosaccording to employer sources. A cost that would fall almost entirely on employers (some households would also be affected by applying the increase to domestic workers).

Employer analysts estimate that for every 1% increase in the minimum wage, the cost that companies have to assume is around 575 million euros. Following this logic, The increase that the unions have put on the table (7.5%) would have a cost of around 4,312 million euros for the business sector. This, without taking into account the addition that the veto would entail to compensate and absorb the increase in the SMI of salary supplements.

Businessmen highlight that That economic impact would be particularly concentrated in a small group of sectors —such as agriculture or domestic workers—, but also to other activities such as cleaning, private security, gardening or dependency. The impact would be especially noticeable in small businesses and micro-SMEs or in the provinces where the minimum wage has the greatest impact.

The proposal for a 1.5% increase in the SMI that the employers’ association launched on Tuesday came accompanied by an amendment to the calculations being made by the committee of experts designated by the Ministry of Labor to estimate how much this income should increase. Businessmen have decided to enter the war of figures and maintain that the starting statistics that the ‘wise men’ of Labor are using is not the most appropriate.

The committee appointed by Yolanda Díaz has used the Salary Structure Survey (EES) as a basis for years, the most complete INE statistic in terms of remuneration. From their data, experts estimate how much 60% of the average salary amounts to to set the SMI figure.

However, for the business sector, starting from this basis presents two major problems. The first is that the latest data from the EES is from 2023, so it is necessary to make a double estimate: the average salary in 2024 and in 2025. In addition, this survey does not include the agricultural sector or domestic workers, two activities where increases in the SMI have a great impact, business owners argue. To solve this problem, the employers propose using the salary section of the Active Population Survey (EPA), which does include these sectors and the most recent data they offer corresponds to the year 2024.