It is the highest increase in the last 30 years: the minimum wage in Spain will go from €665 to €707 next year.
The 8% increase will add €52 to Spanish pay packets for those on the State agreed minimum and has been agreed by the Socialist Pary and the People’s Party - the only criticism coming from Podemos which wanted to see an even higher increase.
The hike in the minimum wage was part of the negotiations on the General State Budget for 2017 which still had to meet the European Commission goal for Spain of a public deficit of 3.1% of GDP.
The minimum wage in Europe varies between €194 and €1,923 with seven EU member states with a minimum wage of over €1,000 a month and Luxembourg ahead at €1,923.
Bulgaria offers the lowest minimum wage at €194 but it’s the northern countries that offer the most with the United Kingdom (€1,510), the Netherlands (€1,501), Belgium (€1,559), Germany (€1,473), Ireland (€1,499) and France (€1,458).
Countries with a minimum wage of less than a €1,000 per month are Slovenia (€791), followed by Spain (€657 until next year), Malta (€720), Greece (€684) and Portugal with just (€505).
The countries with wages below €500 are Poland (€410), Croatia (€399), Estonia (€390), Slovakia (€380), Latvia (€360), Czech Republic (€338), Hungary (€333), Lithuania (€325), Romania (€218) and Bulgaria (€194).
Comments
Some of my near neighbours are living off less than €200 per month, electricity long ago cut off and dependent on local cafes for free hot meals delivered with love and understanding.
It behoves us to be generous to the food banks.