The unions demand from the Government an increase in the minimum wage of 7% in 2027, up to 1,306.5 euros

The unions have marked the path to the Government for the new increase in the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI).

In a joint press conference, the general secretaries of CCOO and UGT, Unai Sordo and Pepe Álvarez, have set their demand at 7%, which would raise the legal minimum wage in Spain to 1,306.5 euros per month, from the current 1,221.

The second vice president of the Government and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, has accelerated the process to activate the increase in the SMI as soon as possible and be able to approve it in the Council of Ministers before the general elections on November 29. And the union leaders have wanted to anticipate the conclusions of the Advisory Committee (the group of experts tasked with recommending the increase for 2027 before November 2) by announcing their proposal now.

The unions argue that the escalation of inflation so far this year has already caused a gap of around 2% with respect to the increase in the SMI in 2026, which was 3.1%. And to compensate for this and avoid the loss of purchasing power, according to their calculations, the minimum wage should rise by at least 7%. An ambitious claim, since maintaining purchasing capacity is one of the mandates of Díaz's committee of experts, although forecasts point to an average CPI of between 3.6% and 3.9% in 2026, so union demand is currently well above those projections.

Sordo and Álvarez have set this demand in the press conference they offered this Tuesday to give the details of the call for a general strike for next November 11. The unions seek to link the mobilization for housing with wage demands to justify the labor fit of the call after its legality has been questioned. And not only with the SMI, but also with the negotiation of the Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC), blocked for a year, according to the unions, due to the CEOE's refusal to sit down and talk about salary increases.

"There is no agreement that resists the impact that housing prices have on the cost of living," Álvarez denounced. "That is why it is more than justified for the union organizations to go to this call for struggle," stated the UGT leader. Sordo, for his part, has acknowledged that the unions are "aware" that they are carrying out a "heterodox" strike call, but has argued that the mobilization "has a very clear wage aspect."