The lack of agreement between the Ministry of Social Security and the self-employed associations when negotiating a new phase of the deployment of the real income contribution system led the Government to . However, the negotiation for the increase in these fees is still pending, but Lorenzo Amor, president of ATA, the main association of the group integrated into CEOE, has today closed the door to the possibility of “We are not going to allow an increase for this year, at least not with the agreement of CEOE-Cepyme and ATA,” he indicated.
Amor, who presented this Monday the results of the Barometer of the situation of self-employment at the end of 2025, has justified his organization’s refusal to accept the continuation of the deployment of the new system with new higher quotas this year, pointing out that “before accepting an increase in the quotas, the Government has to comply with its commitments regarding pluriactivity of self-employed workers, who continue to contribute above the maximum base in exchange for nothing; also regarding the improvement of access to the benefit for cessation of activity, since six out of ten workers who request it continue to be rejected; or regarding the approval of the subsidy for those over 52 years of age or the two weeks of leave for breastfeeding.
However, according to Amor, it does not seem that the Ministry of Social Security is in a hurry to resume negotiations to continue deploying the new contribution system agreed upon in 2022 and whose implementation was to be progressive until 2032. “We have not received any type of communication from the Ministry since last October 20, not even a Christmas greeting.” For this reason, the president of ATA has also complained about not knowing how the regularization of these workers is working (data crossing between Social Security and the Treasury to adapt their contributions to the declared income) corresponding to 2024.
Minimum wage
Amor has also suggested that the CEOE-Cepyme employer association, to which ATA belongs, will not accept the increase in the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI) by 3.1% to 1,221 euros per month in 14 payments, as the Government has proposed. For this he has given two reasons: the first is that it would be “unaffordable for the weakest link” of the business class, which is the self-employed. And, secondly, because, in his opinion, the incentive for businessmen to support this increase – consisting of the Government relaxing the deindexation rules in public contracts of companies with administrations – is not going to occur. “It is a promise that has been brought to the dialogue table and then the Minister of Finance (María Jesús Montero) has already said no,” Amor reproached.
In fact, the business leader has shown himself willing to accept an increase in the minimum wage of between 1.5% and up to 2%, but no more. And he has suggested that the Government’s proposal of 3.1% is the result of the “statistical trilerism” of the group of experts appointed by Labor to analyze the evolution of this minimum wage floor. Furthermore, he has pointed out that these accusations were made by “a ministry” in clear reference to another economic department.
According to this barometer, one in every four self-employed workers consulted (25.6%) expects their business to be worse in 2026 than the previous year. Given this, the majority demand a reduction in administrative and fiscal burdens, which nine out of ten self-employed workers think have increased in the last three years. In fact, they estimate that each of them spends an average of 200 hours a year performing management tasks.
