Alejandra Olcese

Updated Friday, March 29, 2024-17:35

  • Employment Lawyers' notice: The solidarity surcharge on pensions will encourage the flight of workers

  • Pensions Social Security will look for alternatives to the PGE to guarantee income to pay pensions pensions

This week the Government has taken the final step so that on

January 1, 2025 the so-called

'solidarity quota

' comes into force

, a surcharge that will be assumed by workers with salaries higher than the maximum contribution base (which today is 54,000 euros annually) and whose proceeds will be used to pay

public pensions

.

Although the application from that date was already planned - it is part of the pension reform approved by former Minister

José Luis Escrivá

in 2021 -, the Government had yet to approve its

regulatory development

, something it did this Tuesday in the Council of Ministers via modification of the Regulation on Listing and Settlement.

This fee implies that the amount of salary that exceeds the maximum contribution base and that until now was exempt from Social Security contributions because the base was capped, will be taxed at a

new rate of 5.5%

that will be applied from the base. maximum and up to the value of that base increased by 10% (which today would be

54,000 to 59,400 euros

). The rate will rise to 6% for the part of remuneration between that level and the base increased by 50% (the equivalent range from 59,400 to

81,000 euros today

); and it will be 7% for the part of remuneration that exceeds the previous percentage (above 81,000).

These amounts will be updated in 2025 with the increase approved by the Government for the maximum base. The

distribution

of the solidarity fee between company and worker will maintain the same proportion as the distribution of the contribution rate for common contingencies.

As an example, workers who earn between 70,000 and 100,000 euros gross will have to pay

7,500 euros more gross each year to Social Security

in contributions - to be distributed between them and the company - while if the salary reaches 100,000 euros the increase in 'taxes' will be

9,700 euros,

as calculated by the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF).

Different lawyers consulted by EL MUNDO have already warned on several occasions that this new punishment on salaries could cause the flight of workers with high incomes.

The MEI will also rise

The surcharge will be added to the

Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI),

which has been in force since January 1, 2023 and which means that all workers, regardless of their salary, assume an extra contribution. In 2023, when it was approved, the MEI was 0.6% applicable on the basis of contributions for contingencies, of which 0.5 percent is borne by the employer (the company) and 0.1 percent goes to employee account. In 2024, it has risen to 0.70% (0.58% for the company and 0.12% for the worker), and in 2025 it will increase to

0.80% (0.67% for the company and 0 .13% for the worker).

The objective of all these measures is

to reinforce Social Security income

, especially in the face of the growing expenses that it will have to undertake in the coming years and, especially, the tension that it will suffer around 2030, when the

generation of the elderly retires.

babyboom

(which is already beginning to retire).

In his reform, Escrivá decided to shield the increase in all pensions

in accordance with the CPI

, which, together with the increase in retirees and the increase in registrations (due to the higher salaries in recent years), will cause an unprecedented increase in spending in the system. Already today the monthly Social Security pension payroll is close to

12.7 billion euros,

which at the end of a year represents more than 150,000 million euros.

AIReF calculates that the solidarity rate will increase Social Security income by just an additional tenth of GDP (about 1,400 million euros today), but for the Ministry headed by

Elma Saiz

today , everything adds up to balance the accounts.

In any case, although this administration boasts of having the

deficit

controlled at around

0.5% of GDP

, it would not be like this if it were not for the

billion-dollar transfers

it receives annually from the State and which this year it will have to enter again despite to the absence of Budgets.