“It is amazing that the self-employed person who earns 400 euros wants to make him pay 217”
Lorenzo Amor (Córdoba, 1965) has been the voice of ATA, the country’s main association of self-employed workers, for 21 years. Commercial agent by profession and self-employed by family tradition, he serves Economic Information in the midst of controversy over the controversial increase in fees proposed by Social Security last Monday. Amor demands an improvement in benefits, that Social Security “correct errors” and insists on raising contributions with the CPI. It also proposes a “super-reduced” fee for self-employed workers who earn less than 400 euros per month.
Have you spoken to Social Security again since Monday’s meeting? Have they made any new proposals to you?
We haven’t spoken again. The next meeting is scheduled for the last week of October. I suppose the Government will tell us something.
Any informal contact?
We have learned from the press what the minister said, that she would propose another proposal. In any case, we have warned you that self-employed workers already pay contributions based on their real income. There are 15 tables that range from practically 50% of the SMI to the maximum base and in those sections we can quote for a minimum base or a maximum base. Depending on what is entered, fiscally you can already contribute in compliance with the agreement.
Social Security does not agree that contributions are already being made based on real income
The agreement told us that we must carry out a deployment in nine years until 2032 and every three years we would see the evolution, review and evaluate. But it doesn’t say anything about what we had to pay or what the purpose of these nine years was. What is committed, what the law says is to contribute for tax revenue and that is what is being done. What has not been fulfilled is the part that corresponds to the administration, which has to equalize the social protection of the self-employed with that of employees.
“The Government only wants to raise more, the self-employed already pay a lot for the little they receive”
What social measures are they missing?
At this time, six out of ten self-employed workers are denied the cessation of activity. [prestación equivalente al paro para los autónomos]. That does not happen with the unemployment of employees. The self-employed are not entitled to the subsidy for those over 52 years of age. There is no breastfeeding leave for women or paid leave in case of weather problems, as employees have. And much less permits for the death of nearby relatives. As if we self-employed people didn’t have the right to mourn our dead! Some want us to pay for a Ferrari and have the benefits of a [Seat] Panda and that’s not going to be like that.
You have proposed raising prices with the annual CPI. Is it a red line?
The only thing we are going to accept is one with the CPI for each year. That they don’t agree? Well, let them draft the royal decree law and take it to Congress, to see if they support it. The difference is that we propose that the Government raise 1,200 million over the next three years and what they propose is 6,000 million. This proposal is not to improve the social protection of the self-employed, they just want to raise more. The self-employed already pay enough for what they receive.
Would you accept a proposal with lower increases for those who earn the least and higher increases for those who earn the most?
We are willing for the fees to rise with the CPI. But, obviously, without touching any of the reduced sections. It is amazing that they want to raise 8% next year for those who earn 400 euros, forcing them to pay 217. A super-reduced fee should be set so that those who earn 400 euros pay 80, not this outrageous.
“The only thing we are going to accept is an increase in quotas with the CPI each year. Don’t they agree? Well, let them take the royal decree law to Congress, to see if they support it”
Does contributing based on real income mean that the self-employed contribute under the same conditions as employees?
The self-employed already contribute under the same conditions as employees. They contribute a portion and receive benefits for it. A man who earns 5,000 euros per month has the possibility of contributing between 1,900 euros base and 4,900 euros base. It’s not what I interpret, it’s what the law says. The law says nothing about quota, nor does it say anything about base.
Spain is the country that is growing the most among the advanced countries. Does the self-employed notice it?
Neither the self-employed person notices it, nor do the families notice it. In Spain, 500,000 jobs are being created a year, but when one reduces the number of self-employed workers and companies from one to three workers, we see that jobs have been destroyed in the last year. One thing is macroeconomic data and another thing is when we go down to the real economy.
What do you think of the latest labor measures that the Ministry of Labor wants to introduce, such as the new time registration, the increase in the minimum wage…
Every day is a new obstacle, a new occurrence, as is the case with time registration. 99% of Spanish companies and self-employed workers pay overtime to their workers. For 1% you cannot ask that we now have another record and that the one we had before is not valid for us. Because there are 1% of drivers who go more than 120 kilometers per hour on the highway every day, we do not put a tachograph in the car for all drivers.
