Díaz assures that there are "multiple fiscal possibilities" to limit the "abusive" salaries of Ibex businessmen

THE WORLD Madrid

Madrid

Updated Friday, January 19, 2024-14:55

The second vice president and Minister of Labor and Social Economy,

Yolanda Díaz,

assured this Friday that she has not proposed any specific measure to limit the

"abusive" remuneration of senior managers,

but she has insisted that it is a "first-class" debate. range" that can be faced from

"multiple possibilities", including fiscal ones.

Díaz, in statements to the press upon his arrival at the closing of some UGT conferences on the future of employment, has indicated that the only thing he has done is "refer data" on the remuneration distance that exists between workers and managers of their companies.

In this sense, he has denounced that the executive presidents of the Ibex 35 have approximate remunerations of 10 million euros, a figure that

multiplies by 174 the remunerations received by the workers

of those same companies.

Furthermore, he highlighted that the average remuneration of the executive directors of the companies that make up the Ibex multiplies by 54 the average salary of a worker in that same company.

"Therefore,

we should not focus on minimum wages, but on these maximum wages

, which are abusive," said the second vice president, who added that there are "different modulations" to be able to address this matter.

The first, he explained, would be to reach an agreement on the remuneration that managers should receive, because there are already "recommendations" of what the distance should be between these and those received by employees.

Díaz has also pointed out that in some countries a referendum has been held on this issue and has recalled that a letter from more than 250 billionaires has recently become known in which they declared that they were "aware of the obscenity of their remuneration" and the need to contribute positively to public coffers.

The vice president has contrasted this attitude with that of Spanish businessmen, who "always clamor for the people to pay taxes and not them."

"This is a debate of utmost importance in the North American administration, in the North American unions, in the European unions and employers' associations," Díaz stressed.

The vice president has defended that

if workers participated in the boards of directors of companies

, as her Department intends and the Constitution establishes in its article 129, "these salaries that are excessive would not occur."

"I have not given a specific measure, but there are multiple possibilities, also obviously fiscal, and of course this is the debate and not that of minimum wages in a country in which we have a difference of 25 points in terms of wages with the average European," he remarked.

bank tax

Regarding the criticism of the

president of BBVA, Carlos Torres

, that the banking tax harms the Spanish economy, Díaz has indicated that the collection of personal income tax comes 85% from the income of employees, not from capital income. , and that it is necessary that those who have more, contribute more.

"I call on the Spanish business class to comply with their constitutional mandates and be co-responsible with their country. A small company, a self-employed person, a hairdresser, a small business is taxed at 17.5% and a large corporation in the area 3.8%. This is a great fiscal injustice," denounced the vice president.

Asked about the employers' anger over the increase in the

interprofessional minimum wage (SMI)

and the debate on reducing working hours, Díaz stated that the president of the CEOE,

Antonio Garamendi

, "was wrong" by not joining the agreement to raise the 2024 SMI by 5%.

"He made an offer to negotiate that he later did not want to complete and he is the only one responsible, like the Spanish CEOE, for the situation they are in. But Mr. Garamendi knows that salaries in our country are growing at 5%. Therefore, I ask the president of the Spanish employers' association to put himself on the path of understanding and dialogue and pay attention to other reasons that have nothing to do with the defense of the legitimate interests of businessmen in our country," he concluded. Diaz.