Spain: These are the labor and employment changes introduced by the General State Budget Law for 2023

Spain’s General State Budget Law for 2023 (Law 31/2022) has been published in the Official State Gazette and contains some changes to labor and employment and social security legislation, notably as described below:

• As happens every year, the budget law determines the contribution bases and rates for social security, unemployment and business income protection, to the wage guarantee fund, and for vocational training, and it has also increased the cap on the contribution base for 2023 to €4,495.50 on a monthly basis. There are no changes to contribution rates under the general social security regime from those applicable in 2022.
• The budget law regulates the new intergenerational fairness mechanism, which entails the application of an additional 0.6% (0.5% borne by the employer and 0.1% by the worker) to the contribution base for nonoccupational contingencies in all situations of registration or situations regarded as registration with the social security system in which there is an obligation to contribute to cover the retirement plan.
• In training and apprenticeship contracts and in work-linked training contracts, the sole contributions for each day worked, applicable as from January 1, 2023, will be those from 2022 increased by the same proportion that the National Minimum Wage is for 2023.
• The budget law includes the regulation of contribution bases while the benefit from the RED mechanism is being received.
• The law also implements the new contribution system of the special regime for independent contractors, including the contribution bases according to the independent contractor’s net income brackets.
• The legal rate of interest for money has been set at 3.25%, and the late-payment interest rate, at 4.0625%.
• The public multi-purpose income indicator (IPREM) will be the following amounts in 2023: the daily amount will be €20, the monthly amount €600 and the annual amount €7,200.
• In the area of pensions, for 2023, the law establishes an across-the-board average revaluation of pensions equal to the increase in the CPI in the twelve months prior to December 2022, which cannot exceed the cap set for 2022 (€2,819.18 per month) increased by the same percentage that the CPI increases in the twelve months prior to December 2022.
• When it comes to pension plans and funds, the limit of €1,500 is kept in place for employers’ total maximum annual contributions to pension plans. This limit will be increased by €8,500, whenever that increase comes from the employer’s contributions or employee’s contributions to the same employee benefits program in an amount equal to or higher than the respective contribution by the employer.
             
  The budget law amends the multipliers to be applied to the employer’s contribution for the purposes of the increase in the limit on contributions to pension plans, which will now be as follows: (i) for an annual contribution amount equal to or less than €500, the worker’s maximum contribution will be the result of multiplying the employer’s contribution by 2.5, (ii) for an annual amount of between €500.01 and €1,500, the maximum contribution will be €1,250, plus the result of multiplying the difference between the employer’s contribution and €500 by 0.25, and (iii) for an annual amount above €1,500, the maximum contribution will be the result of multiplying the employer’s contribution by 1. In any event, the multiplier 1 will apply when in the year the worker obtains net salary income above €60,000 from the company that makes the contribution, for which purpose the company must inform the management entity that this circumstance is not present. For these purposes, any amounts contributed by the employer that stem from a decision by the employee will be treated as contributions by the employee.
• Training funding continues to be available to companies that make contributions for the occupational training contingency, based on the number of workers, as well as to employers who in 2023 open new workplaces and to newly created companies, where they add new workers to their staff. Any employers who in 2023 grant individual training leave to their workers will have access to funding for additional training.
                 
  In addition, companies that train workers affected by a temporary layoff procedure (ERTE) or one of the forms of the RED mechanism will be entitled to an increase in funding for initiatives within the scope of the programmed training.
• The law once again postpones application of the reduced contributions system for occupational contingencies for employers at which the number of occupational accidents has declined considerably.
• The amount of the contributory unemployment benefit is raised from 50% to 60% of the computation base from day 181 of the receipt of the benefit.