But this proposal is generating controversy, since according to the media outlet “Expansion”, there will be a very close proximity between the minimum wage and the average wage of the Spanish population, which is around €1,800, and this may mean a reduction in job offers that approach the two figures.
All this, in a context in which the Spanish labor market has industries and regions where these figures vary greatly, but to be able to speak in average terms, it seems that this new minimum wage proposal is more than 65% higher than the most frequent pay among workers in 22 provinces, and also represents more than 70% of the minimum wage among SMEs.
The data indicate that the companies that could be most harmed by all this are those with up to 199 workers, and that make up 99.8% of our business fabric, and for them, raising the minimum to 60% of the average salary would mean reaching 70% of the average remuneration of the smallest companies, according to data from Cepyme.
All this is due to a lower salary capacity, since they register an average salary of €1,517, compared to the nearly €1,800 that the global average salary is around, according to the report called “The impact of the increase in SIMI on SMEs”, prepared by the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises.