JUST two weeks after socialist president Pedro Sánchez was sworn in for a fresh term, his deputy Yolanda Díaz has expressed a desire to increase the minimum wage in Spain.
Yolanda Díaz, deputy president of Spain (photo: EFE)
Head of the socialist (PSOE) government's left-wing coalition partners, Sumar, Sra Díaz reasoned that the lowest legal salary payable to workers should rise by a figure above the level of inflation, so that employees could 'regain the spending power they have lost' since prices began to spiral.
This means the minimum wage would have to rise by around 3.7% to 3.8%, or approximately €560 a year before tax.
This announcement was made during a conference on achieving equality among women in Spain's gypsy,or gitana community – a long-established and settled group that shares roots with the Roma ethnicity.
“There's no better tool for equality than to raise the minimum wage,” Sra Díaz stated, “and there's no better feminist, anti-poverty or anti-job insecurity policy than this.”
She intends to call meetings with trade unions and representatives from the business community to discuss the matter 'immediately', in order to deal with the current 'unprecedented inflation crisis'.
How the minimum wage works out
Yolanda Díaz's proposal would mean the lowest earners receiving €1,120 per month before tax, based upon 14 monthly salaries – a double pay packet in August and December.
As the 14-month system is rare nowadays outside the public sector, this would mean 12 monthly salaries every year of about €1,156.30 after tax, or a gross annual wage of €15,680.
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