Spanish gov't raises minimum wage by 8 pct for 2017

The Spanish government has approved to raise Spain's minimum wage by 8 percent for 2017, the government announced on Friday.

The country's minimum wage will stand at 707.6 euros (754.4 U.S. dollars) per month, rising from the current 648.6 euros after the People's Party(PP) and the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) reached an agreement on Thursday.

PSOE had asked for a rise in the minimum wage in exchange for their support to pass the 2017 budget as Spain has a minority government and the PP needs to negotiate with others in order to pass the laws at the Spanish parliament.

Spain's State Secretary for Employment, Juan Pablo Riesgo, said at the press conference after the Cabinet meeting that the rise would mean around 70 million euros more for the Social Security System.

The main Spanish unions said the rise was not enough and asked for a bigger increase up to 800 euros for 2017, a request that was presented at the Spanish parliament through the left wing party, Unidos Podemos. Unions also wanted the country's minimum wage to increase up to 1,000 euros in 2020.

Meanwhile, Spanish employers'organization (CEOE) said the rise could put the country's employment at risk and argued that the rise should be around 1.02 percent, a figure already agreed on the collective agreements. (1 euro=1.06 U.S. dollars) Endit