The CEOE and Cepyme employers and the UGT union gave the green light this Monday to the pre-agreement reached with the majority unions to raise wages in the coming years for workers protected by a collective agreement. The agreement supposes an agreed increase of 4% for 2023 and 3% for 2024 and 2025, including a clause for an additional increase of up to 1%, depending on the evolution of prices.

The agreement means putting an end to more than a year of negotiation, and despite the fact that it does not satisfy the initial proposal of the unions, it is expected that the agreed salary increase will allow citizens to gain purchasing power, since, according to the Bank's forecasts In Spain, expected inflation will be below the wage increases proposed by the agreement in two of the three years.

However, one of the big doubts is whether the salary increase will compensate for the loss of purchasing power suffered in 2022, when average inflation was 8.4%.. Will the salary increase be retroactive in nature to compensate for this loss? Will companies have to pay amounts for the lost purchasing power?

The salary increase will not be retroactive

In 2022, average inflation was 8.4%, an unprecedented figure in 40 years, while wages in the agreement barely grew an average of 2.78%. This agreement reached now, in principle, means enunciating to recover the purchasing power lost in 2022.

However, the general secretary of the CCOO, Unai Sordo, nevertheless assured on Friday that “it would not mean a waiver of a salary increase in 2022, which would have to be supported, yes, in the negotiation of collective agreements.”

On the other hand, the workers' representatives wrest the review clauses from the employer: CEOE and Cepyme cede, in exchange for separating them from the economic situation of the companies and lower percentage increases.