General Overview
The area of labor rights records the highest number of advances in Spain during the period. The Sánchez government — with the Ministry of Labor headed by Yolanda Díaz and Sumar as coalition partner — deployed a labor reform agenda of considerable scope during the period: reduction of working hours, increase of the minimum wage, early retirement in jobs considered hazardous, and labor protection for persons with disabilities.
Reduction of Working Hours and Minimum Wage
In December 2024, the Ministry of Labor signed an agreement with the trade unions Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) and Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) to reduce the maximum working week from 40 to 37.5 hours without wage reduction, benefiting more than 12 million workers. The agreement includes mandatory digital time-tracking and reinforcement of the right to digital disconnection. In May 2025, the Council of Ministers presented the draft law to formalize this reduction in the legal framework, with time-tracking and the right to disconnect as its pillars. In February 2025, Royal Decree 87/2025 set the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI) at 1,184 euros per month — 16,576 euros annually — an increase of 4.4% compared to 2024. Since the beginning of the Sánchez government, the SMI has accumulated an increase of more than 60%, up from 735.9 euros per month in 2018.
Early Retirement and Disability Protection
In May 2025, Royal Decree 1192/2024 implemented the early retirement reform for hazardous jobs — those with high exposure to risk or toxicity — lowering the retirement age in those sectors. In May 2025, Law 2/2025 harmonized Spanish legislation with European guidelines on disability, eliminating automatic dismissal due to permanent incapacity — a significant labor inclusion measure that protects workers with disabilities from dismissal.
Spain’s labor agenda for the period contrasts radically with those of Argentina and the United States, where far-right administrations actively dismantled labor protection mechanisms. The reduction of working hours without wage reduction advanced in Spain as a result of collective bargaining with the major trade unions.