The CCOO and UGT unions announced this Tuesday their proposal to increase the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI) for 2026: 7.5%, bringing it to 1,273 gross euros per month. It represents 89 euros more per month compared to the 1,184 euros per month in force this year and with the assumption that the minimum wage is taxed to personal income tax for the first time, which is what both worker organizations advocate. In addition, they demand some changes in the decree that regulates the minimum wage, such as preventing companies from absorbing the increase through certain bonuses.
This was explained this Tuesday by the Secretary of Union Action and Strategic Transitions of CCOO, Javier Pacheco, and the Deputy Secretary General of Union Policy of UGT, Fernando Luján, in a press conference. When asked about the high amount, Luján stressed that business margins have increased more in the last year, “8.2%”, according to data from the Tax Agency, which is why he considers that the union proposal is “strong”, but “moderate”.
Furthermore, Pacheco has specified that the increase is not comparable to that of past years, because it incorporates taxation into personal income tax for the first time, which represents the majority of the proposed increase. Without it, the increase in the SMI would be 2.7%, up to 1,216 euros per month, explained the head of CCOO.
The majority unions have communicated their proposal before the Commission of experts of the Ministry of Labor – of which they are a part – has completed its recommendation to increase the SMI so that it meets 60% of the average net salary in the country. This year, the second vice president, Yolanda DĂaz, asked the specialists for two increase proposals: one in which the SMI would remain untaxed in 2026 and another increase taking into account that the minimum wage would pay personal income tax for the first time, as the Treasury has proposed in recent years.
That the minimum wage pays personal income tax for the first time
The two unions are defending this year in a new way that the minimum wage pays taxes for the first time. Of course, always guaranteeing that the net amount that reaches the workers’ pockets meets 60% of the average net salary in the country, as established by the European Social Charter. Faced with this same debate last year, CCOO did open itself to the taxation of the SMI (if the net 60% of the average salary was maintained), but UGT positioned itself against paying taxes.
Now, CCOO and UGT have closed their commitment to the taxation of the minimum wage in 2026, a step to “homologize” the tax contribution of the minimum wage to all of the country’s workers, Javier Pacheco has justified, warning that once the SMI reaches standards of dignity and sufficiency (such as that goal of 60%) there is no justification to maintain that tax exemption. It can even be “discriminatory” with other workers who earn a little more than the minimum and who do pay personal income tax, the CCOO representative has indicated.
Fernando Luján has argued that last year UGT considered that the SMI was not guaranteeing that 60% of the average salary. “We are so fair that any impairment or reduction would lead to poverty,” pointed out the deputy general secretary of the UGT, but once that goal was guaranteed, the union considered that it was necessary to put an end to the “anomaly” of the SMI not paying taxes, he added.
Condition that the increase is not absorbed in the bonuses
In addition, the majority unions include several additional conditions to the Government for the increase in the SMI this 2026. As they already demanded last year, the workers’ confederations demand that the Executive modify the royal decree that regulates the minimum wage in several issues, among which stands out that companies cannot absorb the increase through certain bonuses, such as those for danger, night work or profit sharing.
This royal decree is being negotiated within the framework of the transposition of the European Directive on minimum wages, which European justice has just supported in its essentials. CCOO and UGT have linked a possible agreement with the Government on the increase in the 2026 SMI to these legal modifications. That is to say, “even if the digits” of the increase coincide, the unions are not going to sign it if it is not accompanied by these legal changes, Javier Pacheco has assured.
Luján has maintained that, “if the Government has any credit”, it must undertake these changes in the regulation of the minimum wage, which was already promised to the unions last year and, in his opinion, is in line with what was established by European justice. For their part, if these modifications in the absorption of bonuses are approved, business associations are expected to appeal the regulations in court.
The unions place this matter as a priority, which would even justify delaying the increase in the minimum wage, since these legal changes require a royal decree that has to go through the Council of State (a process that can take a few months). “Just because we are running, we are not going to agree on an absorbable increase,” said the CCOO representative. “If you have to wait, you wait. A real increase is more important,” he concluded.
Source: www.eldiario.es
