SURPRISE SURPRISE! THE EMPLOYERS’ CONFEDERATION IS HAPPY ABOUT PAY HIKE! »

Antonio Garamendi, President of the powerful profit-driven Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations, didn’t seem to be even remotely put out by the 5.5% rise in the national minimum wage that the left-leaning Spanish Government has approved on 22 January 2020. But the Government wants another pay hike in 2021 and it looks like beyond a certain red line the business organizations will no longer play along. The era of a progressive government in Spain has started, after years of conservative rule that consigned 13% of the labor force to working poverty. How long will the new era last?