Spain agrees 4% increase in minimum wage for 2018, with further rises planned

Spain’s minimum wage will rise 4% in 2018, with the government pledging further increases for the next few years.

Spain’s lowest paid workers will receive some instant New Year cheer in 2018 after the country’s government agreed to a 4% increase in the minimum wage…

This increase will equate to an additional €28.40 per month, which may not sound like a lot but is likely to make a great deal of difference to the nation’s poorer workers. This 4% increase will rise to 5% in 2019, and a further increase for 2020 means that, by that date, the monthly minimum salary in Spain will be €850.

While Spain’s economic recovery has boosted job growth and helped to stabilise the national GDP over the past few years, workers’ salaries have taken something of a hit as a result.

According to Unai Sordo, the leader of Spain’s largest union the Workers’ Commissions, Spain has “suffered an intense devaluation of its salaries” over the past decade. And while the trend of low wage growth in Europe is in no way limited to Spain, the country was certainly among the hardest hit.

Sordo praised the government’s decision, saying that it is “a boost to rebuild the salaries of people who lost most in the economic crisis”. Official data shows that some 450,000 people currently receive the minimum wage in Spain, and the staged increases have been calculated alongside projected GDP growth, which is expected to rise more than 2.5% in 2018 – healthy, but slightly down on 2017’s growth.

In the Eurozone, Spain sits in the Group 2 of wage countries – along with Portugal, Slovenia, Greece and Malta – where the lowest legal wage is more than €500 per month but less than €1,000. The highest group, Group 3 – where the minimum monthly wage is above €1,000 – comprises Germany, France, Belgium, Ireland and Luxembourg.

Currently, Spain’s unemployment rate is at its lowest for nine years.