Increase of the SMI before 29N: who it would affect and what is needed to approve it

As of October 8, 2026, there is not yet a legally pending "upcoming" increase of the SMI in parliamentary processing. The current increase is the one already approved for 2026, and the work that has now begun for 2027 is in a preparatory phase, not parliamentary.

1. Current situation of the SMI increase

For 2026, the Government has already completed the regulatory cycle:

• The Council of Ministers agreed to raise the SMI by 3.1% to 1,221 euros per month in 14 payments (17,094 euros annually) and to make it retroactive from January 1, 2026.
  This was announced on February 17, 2026, by the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy.
• The Royal Decree 126/2026, of February 18, which sets the SMI for 2026, was published in the BOE on February 19, 2026, consolidating those amounts for the period 1-1-2026 / 31-12-2026.

Regarding the next increase (for 2027), what exists today is:

• Convocation and meeting of the Advisory Commission for the Analysis of the SMI, which meets on October 8, 2026, with the Minister of Labor to begin preparing the 2027 increase.
• Political announcements that Labor wants to accelerate the agreement before the November 29, 2026 elections and maintain the goal that the SMI represents around 60% of the average salary.

But, according to available information, there is no record yet of:

• any royal decree of SMI for 2027 approved by the Council of Ministers,
• nor a specific royal decree-law on the SMI pending validation,
• nor a bill registered in the Cortes to set a new SMI amount.

Therefore, strictly speaking, there is no open parliamentary processing regarding the next increase: the process is in the governmental and social dialogue phase.

2. How an SMI increase is normally approved

The SMI is set by the Government through an "ordinary" royal decree, under Article 27 of the Workers' Statute. This has two important consequences for your question:

• That royal decree is not a royal decree-law, so it is not validated by Congress nor processed as a bill.
• Under normal conditions, the increase does not go through a proper parliamentary process; the role of the Cortes is political (control and debate), but not decisive regarding the text of the royal decree.

The usual scheme each year is:

1. Report from the expert committee on the SMI for the following year (usually in autumn of the previous year).
2. Negotiation at the Social Dialogue Table (Government, unions, and employers), from which a Government–unions agreement usually emerges, with or without CEOE support.
3. Approval by the Council of Ministers of the royal decree setting the new SMI for the entire year (from January 1 to December 31).
4. Publication in the BOE a few days later; in recent years this has occurred between late January and February.
5. The royal decree expressly sets that the amount applies with retroactive effect from January 1, so companies must regularize already paid payrolls.

3. What if a royal decree-law were used?

In principle, it is not necessary to resort to a royal decree-law to set the SMI. If exceptionally the Government chose that route (for reasons of "extraordinary and urgent necessity"):

• The royal decree-law would come into force upon its publication in the BOE.
• The Congress would have 30 days to debate it and decide whether to validate or repeal it in a single vote.
• The Plenary could agree that it be processed afterward as a bill, opening an amendment phase and allowing modification of the content.

That would be the only scenario in which we could talk about a proper parliamentary process for the SMI increase. Today there is no record that the Government has chosen that formula for the next update.

4. Typical timelines in practice

Looking at what has happened in recent years:

• Negotiation and political agreement usually close between December and February.
• The Council of Ministers approves the royal decree usually in January or February.
• The BOE publishes the regulation in the following days (for example, the 2026 SMI was published on February 19, 2026) and the increase applies with effect from January 1.

In summary: today the next SMI increase is in the phase of governmental preparation and social dialogue, without a formal parliamentary file open, and the usual practice is that the decision materializes again in a royal decree of the Council of Ministers with publication in the BOE at the beginning of the year and retroactive effects.

In the Spanish legal system, the figure of the Second Vice President of the Government does not have a distinct "own statute," but is framed within the general regime of the Vice Presidencies of the Government and what, at any given time, is established by the royal decree on the Vice Presidencies and the structure of the Executive.

1. General constitutional framework

The Spanish Constitution, in its Article 98, defines very basically the composition of the Government: it is composed of the president, the vice presidents, if any, the ministers, and other members established by law. The Constitution:

• Recognizes that there may be one or several vice presidencies, but does not fix how many nor what specific rank the second has compared to the first or third.
• Refers to the law (and, in practice, to the Government's royal decrees) for determining their statute and functions.

That is, constitutionally the second vice president is simply one of the members of the Government, hierarchically below the president and immediately below the vice presidency with an earlier ordinal number.

2. Regulation in Law 50/1997, of the Government

Law 50/1997, of November 27, of the Government, develops Article 98 of the Constitution. In the key provision on vice presidencies (located in the block of articles regulating the position of the president, vice presidents, and ministers) it establishes two central ideas:

• Discretionary nature: the existence of vice presidencies "when they exist" means their creation is a political decision of the president of the Government. There may or may not be a second vice president, depending on how the president configures the Government after appointment.
• Functions by delegation: "the Vice President or Vice Presidents, when they exist, shall exercise the functions entrusted to them by the President". This is the legal core of their powers: they do not have a closed catalog in the law, but their power derives from the assignment made by the president.

Additionally, the law foresees that the vice president who assumes the leadership of a ministerial department also holds the status of minister. In that case, the second vice president accumulates:

• The attributions of vice president (by presidential delegation).
• The ordinary competences of the ministry of which they are head.

3. Royal Decree 830/2023 and regulations on Vice Presidencies

The current detail is specified in Royal Decree 830/2023, of November 20, on the Vice Presidencies of the Government, modified by Royal Decree 1231/2023, of December 29. From its articles it follows that:

• For the Second Vice Presidency of the Government, the general rule is reiterated: "it corresponds [...] to exercise the functions entrusted to it by the President of the Government."
• A specific attribution is added: the presidency of the Government Delegated Commission determined in the corresponding royal decree (that is, another specific norm will establish which delegated commission the second vice president chairs).
• It is expressly clarified that the General Commission of Secretaries of State and Undersecretaries is not chaired by any of the vice presidencies, but by the holder of the Ministry of the Presidency, Justice, and Relations with the Cortes, in application of Law 50/1997.

The numbering "first," "second," or "third" does not by itself imply a different competential content in the law, but a political and protocol order of precedence, to which the specific functions assigned by the president by royal decree or delegation acts are then superimposed.

4. Types of competences of a second vice president

In light of this regulatory framework, the competences and attributions of a second vice president of the Government can be grouped as follows:

• General vice presidential functions: all those that the president attributes, which may range from coordinating large areas of public policy (for example, economy, ecological transition, social policy, digitalization) to directing certain transversal governmental strategies.
• Coordination functions and chairing collegiate bodies: in particular, chairing one or more Government Delegated Commissions assigned to them. These commissions are collegiate bodies that group several ministries to coordinate complex sectoral policies; chairing them places the second vice president at the center of such coordination.
• Functions derived from the ministerial portfolio (if held): regulation, planning, and management of the corresponding department, with all the powers of a minister (direction of the ministry, regulatory power within its scope, proposal of normative projects, etc.).
• Political representation functions: although the law does not detail it, in practice the second vice president may assume Government representation in institutional acts, dialogue tables, or sectoral negotiations, always according to the internal task distribution decided by the president.

In sum, according to Spanish legislation, the second vice president of the Government is a "presidential design" vice presidency: the Constitution and the Government Law provide a basic framework, and the real content of their competences is specified through royal decrees and presidential delegations, which may vary from one legislature to another.

The annual increase of the minimum interprofessional salary (SMI) is practically articulated through a royal decree of the Government. For that increase to be legally valid, requirements of competence, procedure, and content must be met, mainly derived from the Workers' Statute and the Government Law.

1. Competence basis: who can raise the SMI and with what instrument

The key is in Article 27 of the Workers' Statute (consolidated text approved by Royal Legislative Decree 2/2015):

• It expressly grants the Government the power to set, after consultation with social agents, the SMI each year.
• It refers to "minimum interprofessional salary" for any activity, without distinction of sex or age, and with general effects.

This provision is developed by regulation through a royal decree approved by the Council of Ministers and published in the BOE. It is not necessary to resort to a royal decree-law: the regulation of the SMI falls within the regulatory power of the Executive and does not require, by itself, the concurrence of "extraordinary and urgent necessity" nor subsequent parliamentary validation associated with the decree-law.

2. Consultation with unions and employers: obligation to hear, not to agree

The same Article 27 requires the Government to consult before setting the amount:

• It must address the most representative trade union organizations and employer associations.
• The obligation is for effective consultation (dialogue, exchange of positions, possibility to make allegations), not agreement.

In practice, a social dialogue table is convened where the Ministry of Labor presents a proposed increase, listens to unions and employers, and, if possible, reaches a pact. But, legally, lack of consensus does not invalidate the royal decree, as long as the consultation process has been carried out and reasonably documented.

3. Material criteria the Government must consider

Article 27 also sets the legal criteria to be weighed when deciding the SMI figure:

• Consumer price index (inflation).
• National average productivity.
• Increase in labor's share of national income.
• General economic situation.

The royal decree is not obliged to reflect these criteria with numerical formulas, but it must motivate the increase with reference to them: price evolution, economic context, wage improvement objectives, etc. This motivation is relevant both for political control and, if necessary, for possible judicial review.

4. Normative procedure of the royal decree

Being a regulatory provision, the draft royal decree of the SMI must follow the general rules of Law 50/1997, of the Government on the elaboration of general provisions, with the modulations foreseen by the law itself:

• Regulatory impact analysis report (economic, budgetary, gender impact, etc.).
• Hearing and public information procedure, except in specific exempted cases: in recent years it has normally been subjected to a quick hearing on the ministry's portal.
• Report from the Technical General Secretariat of the proposing department and, if applicable, other affected ministries (Finance, Social Security...).
• When the royal decree has the character of an executive regulation issued in direct development of a law (as with the application of art. 27), it is usual – and in many cases mandatory – to request a report from the Council of State.
• Approval by the Council of Ministers, where the text is formally approved.
• Publication in the BOE with the full text, the SMI amount (usually daily, monthly, and annual calculation), and the effective date.

The royal decree may set that the increase has retroactive effects from January 1 of the corresponding year, something that has been repeatedly done; such limited retroactivity is admitted as long as it does not harm consolidated rights and is clearly established in the norm.

5. Relation with the General State Budgets

The setting of the SMI does not require it to be determined by the General State Budgets. The SMI is set by royal decree under the Workers' Statute, while other amounts (such as the IPREM) are usually set in the Budget law itself. Therefore:

• It is not a requirement that there be a new Budget law to raise the SMI.
• The budgetary impact on benefits, contracts, and public expenses must be assessed, an aspect reflected in the impact report.

In summary, to raise the SMI by royal decree the Government needs: express legal competence (art. 27 ET), prior consultation with unions and employers, consideration of the economic criteria set by law, complete regulatory processing according to the Government Law, approval by the Council of Ministers, and publication in the BOE. Neither a specific law nor binding social agreement is required, although politically they are usually sought.