The minimum interprofessional salary (SMI) is 1,221 gross euros per month in 14 payments. The coalition Government has approved the new 2026 amount in the Council of Ministers this Tuesday, signed yesterday by Labor with the majority unions in the unprecedented presence of President Pedro Sánchez. The SMI rises 3.1% compared to 2025, which represents 37 euros more per month. In addition, the Executive has once again approved a tax deduction to prevent these workers from paying personal income tax.
“The increase is spectacular in recent years,” highlighted the second vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, of 66% since 2018. “Nothing has happened in Spain, we have not destroyed anything, but we have reached record employment figures that we have never had in the country, exceeding 22.5 million working people,” she added.
The increase in the minimum wage “is a conscious political decision: that work allows us to live with dignity,” stated Elma Saiz, the Minister of Social Security and Government spokesperson.
The tensions between the Government and the employers have had a new chapter in the press conference after the Council of Ministers. “Mr. Garamendi earns the SMI 23 times. I ask him for prudence and responsibility,” said Yolanda Díaz about the leader of the large employers’ association CEOE, who has responded to President Sánchez in his criticism for not agreeing to raise the minimum wage.
Below, we collect some of the most frequently asked questions regarding the increase in the minimum wage.
How much does the minimum wage increase?
The SMI increases by 3.1% compared to 2025, to compensate for the increase in prices last year (2.9%) and thus protect the purchasing power of its recipients. The increase also guarantees the Government’s commitment that the SMI reaches at least 60% of the average salary in the country, as recommended by the European Committee of Social Rights.
The minimum wage is thus increased by 37 euros per month, going from 1,184 euros to 1,221 euros gross per month for a full day in 2026, which is paid in 14 payments. It reaches 1,424.5 euros per month if it is paid in twelve payments. In annual terms, the SMI reaches 17,094 euros.
Since 2018, the Government has increased the SMI by 66%, from the 735 euros per month in force when Pedro Sánchez arrived at Moncloa.
Are the 1,221 euros gross or net?
Brutes. Therefore, the net salary that the worker receives in his bank account is somewhat lower.
Social Security contributions must be deducted from the gross amounts (for social protection due to unemployment or illness, for example). And, at first, also the monthly income tax withholding, although the Treasury will later return these amounts in the income tax return to its recipients.
Approximately, the net amount that workers will finally receive will be around 1,140 euros per month in 14 payments.
Since when has the minimum wage increase been applied?
As it has done in recent years, the Government has approved the new amount of the minimum wage with retroactive effect from January 1 of this year.
Thus, companies must pay the new minimum wage of 1,221 euros per month from now on and, in addition, pay an increase corresponding to the month of January.
Who receives the SMI?
There are very different figures about who earns the minimum wage, even within the Government itself. The Ministry of Labor estimates there are almost 2.5 million working people, around 13% of the total number of salaried people. Among them, women stand out, almost 66%, according to the department of Yolanda Díaz, more than 1.6 million workers, and young people “with an incidence of 27%” among people under 25 years of age.
However, the minister spokesperson and person in charge of Social Security, Elma Saiz, has given a lower incidence figure, of “more than 1.6 million” people, around 9% of employees, “mainly women and young people”, the same figure that the CCOO union has estimated.
Will workers pay personal income tax?
At first yes, on the payroll, but later the Treasury will return the money. The Government has raised the tax deduction for salaries below 20,000 euros gross from 340 to 591 euros, in such a way that it benefits SMI recipients, but also avoids the “jump error” for those higher payments that are in the same bracket.
The first vice president and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, has defended that with this measure the worker who earns the SMI today pays 800 euros less than what the same amount would be taxed during the years of the PP Government, discounting inflation, a figure that rises to 1,812 euros if the evolution of prices is taken into account.
“The accumulated savings reaches 11,000 million euros. I say this because it has been an initiative of this Government to lower taxation on low salaries and ask for a greater effort from those who pay taxes on the high scale or in sectors such as banking or energy,” said the ‘number two’ of the Executive.
The Government deduction, which has to go through Congress, will be applied in the 2026 Income Tax Return, to be presented in the spring of next year, which is when the beneficiaries will be able to receive what was overcharged by the Tax Agency.
Can no one earn less than 1,221 gross euros per month?
For a full day of work, no. Only remuneration in money is computed in the minimum wage, and the salary in kind cannot give rise to the payment of lower amounts in any case. That is to say, a company cannot pay less than those 1,221 euros because in addition to the salary it includes other benefits, such as a canteen at the company’s expense or the use of a home at the employer’s expense, for example, common with live-in domestic workers.
But there are people who can earn less than 1,221 euros gross per month: those who do not work full days, but part-time. The vast majority, 73%, are women and in many cases they have unwanted hours, one of the main problems of the labor market and working poverty in Spain.
In that case, the minimum monthly salary is calculated proportionally based on the hours worked. For example, 610.5 euros gross for a half day.
What is the minimum daily wage? What happens to domestic workers?
The minimum wage decree also establishes other references, such as the daily minimum wage and that applied to temporary and temporary workers, as well as domestic employees.
The amounts are:
- Daily SMI: 40.7 euros gross.
- SMI for temporary and temporary workers, per legal day in the activity: 57.82 euros gross.
- SMI for domestic employees, per hour actually worked: 9.55 euros gross.
Can the rise in the SMI be cushioned with salary supplements?
At the moment yes, although the Ministry of Labor wants to avoid it in a future regulation.
This is a business practice supported by the Supreme Court, whereby companies compensate for the increase in the SMI if the worker earns in total (including bonuses) at least those 1,221 gross euros per month.
Yolanda Díaz has agreed with the CCOO and UGT unions to modify this situation, preventing the compensation of certain bonuses, “so that the impact of the SMI is real and not with accounting fraud in our country,” the vice president stated this Tuesday.
The pact states that “the absorption and compensation rules exclude supplements that accrue due to the conditions under which the activity is provided; residence, those linked to intrinsic characteristics of the worker; those related to the quantity or quality of work or those whose non-compensable nature” is already provided for in collective agreements and legislation.
Source: www.eldiario.es
