The Council of Ministers has approved an extra increase of 0.5% for 3.5 million civil servants, which will be retroactive and will mean an average increase of 180 euros in the annual payroll. The increase is part of the last salary agreement with the unions, corresponding to the variable part that was linked to inflation.
“This remuneration increase is executed by complying with the provisions of the PGE law corresponding to 2023, which includes this possibility when the sum of the Harmonized CPI (IPCA) for 2022 and the CPI data advanced by the INE for the month of September 2023 was higher than 6%. In the first case, the 2022 IPCA was 5.5%, while the second has reached 3.2%. This results in a percentage of 8.7%, which requires half a point increase,” explains the Ministry of Finance and Public Function.
The cost of the increase will amount to 791 million and most of the beneficiaries work in the communities, given that it is in that area of the Administration where the largest number of employees are concentrated. “The majority of them work for the Autonomous Communities, which employ almost 60% of all personnel who work for the State. These are followed by number of personnel by the Local Entities and the Central Administration,” explains María’s department. Jesus Montero.
The increase benefits all civil servants and public workers, while “in public companies and the public sector this increase also operates, but it is also subject to the agreement and, therefore, to union dialogue with the legitimate representation that each instrumental entity has, but this increase appeals to the entire group of employees, local officials and communities,” explained Montero.
The minister also recalled that there is another 0.5% additional variable, and that depends on economic growth. If the GDP increase is 2.1% or higher, something that seems likely given the forecasts of national and international organizations, public workers will receive a new raise. “That will be another variable that can be analyzed in the month of February and that will complete that 3.5% increase for more than three and a half million public employees,” the minister explained.