The minimum wage proposed by the Basque Government is between 7 and 17% higher than the national minimum wage.

The debate over the collective bargaining minimum wage in the Basque Country has only just begun. Mikel Torres, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Labor, and Employment, has just presented the report commissioned by the Basque Government from an external firm. The report aims to provide collective bargaining with "a rigorous and well-founded reference" that "helps improve wage levels" and "reduce labor inequalities." It establishes an increase of between 7% and 17% compared to the national minimum wage, as it proposes a gross salary of between €1,268 and €1,385 in 14 installments. Aware of the differences between unions and companies, Torres expressed his hope that this report will serve "as a starting point for future interprofessional agreements" if the social partners so decide.

However, whether this proposal is approved or not, the truth is that the debate is already on the table, despite the fact that last February, the Basque employers' association refused to participate in the negotiating table convened by the four main unions in the Basque Country: ELA, LAB, CCOO, and UGT. This week, moments before holding its General Council meeting, its president, Tamara Yagüe, responded to the media about this controversy, but did so tangentially. "In the Basque Country, we have the highest salaries in Spain, and of the 660,000 employees subject to collective bargaining agreements signed by their regional organizations, this minimum wage agreement would affect 23,000 people," so, in her opinion, "it is not a priority issue."

ELA and LAB, for their part, agree that it is "positive" that the department led by the PSE-EE "proposes the need for its own minimum wage, but its proposal is not enough to lift the most disadvantaged sectors of the Basque Autonomous Community out of poverty." Both unions describe the practical effects of this proposal as "marginal," as according to their estimates, it would only benefit a group of 10,000 workers. Therefore, they are calling on the Basque Government to increase this amount to 1,500 euros.

The ELA and LAB unions are demanding a minimum wage of 1,500 euros due to the higher cost of living in the Basque Country.

Yagüe, on the other hand, believes that "there is no point in debating figures" without first discussing "how to improve business competitiveness," since, in his opinion, the two should be linked. He stressed that the employers' association is only willing to discuss a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) minimum wage in the Basque Country if it does so within the framework of a tripartite forum such as the social dialogue table, which includes, in addition to the social stakeholders, the Basque Government. This forum also includes discussions on "other factors that promote business competitiveness and sustainability," such as reducing absenteeism, a problem in which, as he noted, the Basque Country leads the way in Spain, or organizational flexibility.

The unions, for their part, have criticized the Basque government's minimum wage proposal for "the lowest wage bracket recommended by the European Social Charter or EU directives," while "if they had opted for the highest bracket, the minimum wage included in the proposal would have been between €250 and €350 higher." They are therefore calling for a Basque minimum wage of €1,500.

Furthermore, considering that, as revealed by the Basque Government study, the cost of living in the Basque Country is between 7 and 11% higher than the rest of Spain, Oihana Lopetegi, head of trade union action and collective bargaining at LAB, stated that in the Basque Country "a higher salary is needed to live a decent life." In this regard, Pello Igeregi, head of collective bargaining at the ELA union, noted that, according to a 2022 study conducted by the Basque Government itself, "citizens' well-being begins to deteriorate when monthly income falls below 1,418 euros."

"Since then, the Basque Government has stopped publishing this study, but any proposal from the Administration must guarantee a minimum level of well-being," he warned. To achieve this, they are continuing their signature collection campaign, hoping to gather 100,000 signatures that will allow them to launch a Popular Legislative Initiative (PLI) to promote a social debate around the need to establish a minimum wage in the region.

The ELA and LAB unions have criticized the Basque Government for "limiting" itself to working on the basis of agreements signed in the Basque Country, "when the people with the lowest wages are the 188,000 workers to whom state agreements apply and the 48,000 without an applicable agreement, mostly women, migrants, young people, or people with disabilities." In their opinion, the minimum wage should especially benefit these workers, either "through an interprofessional agreement signed with the employers' association or through legislation, once the transfer of powers has been achieved."