Approval of the increase in salaries and rents
Currently the rents issue is a “boom” issue in the Principality, and if we compare it to the salary of citizens, most wonder: How will we pay the rent?
The new year begins with a minimum salary of 1,286 euros per month, with an increase of 7%, also an increase of up to 7% in Social Security retirement, widowhood and disability pensions below the minimum interprofessional salary , and solidarity pensions for the elderly and for people with disabilities.
Specifically, starting from January 1, 2023, all employers defined in article 11 of Law 31/2018, of December 6, on labor relations are obliged to increase, as a minimum, the salary of salaried persons who receive a gross fixed salary that, in annual calculation and for the ordinary legal working day, is less than or equal to 48,000 euros, according to the following formula:
If 14,414.40 ≤ S ≤ 16,800
I=7.1
If 16,800 < S ≤ 48,000
I= [(-0’065S) + (3,276)]/312
I: Percentage increase (%), and that configures the salary revaluation index
S: Gross fixed salary in annual calculation and ordinary legal hours
On the other hand, referring to the rents, between January 1 and December 31, 2023, the rents of the housing lease contracts for habitual and permanent residence are updated: in the case of expired contracts and those in a situation of tacit or forced extension from December 31, 2022 or before, it can be increased up to a maximum of 5%.
* Not applicable if the parties have agreed to terminate the contract under the conditions provided in the Law on Protection Measures, Market Stimulus and Governance.
In the case of contracts that have been in force for at least one year and therefore not extended: it can be increased up to a maximum of 2%.
The majority, upon seeing the approval of the increase in wages and rents by the General Council, opposed it since they saw it as contradictory for wages to rise due to the improvement in the purchasing power of citizens if rental prices also rose, that are already exorbitant. But the General Council refuses to limit the rent increase to 1.25%.
We find ourselves in a situation where many of our citizens have to leave the country, since the economic capacities are not enough to be able to pay for the apartment and assume all the expenses.
So to compensate this, there are other previously planned measures.
First, measures to improve purchasing power such as:
– Enhance consumption capacity
– Recover purchasing power
– Promote savings and sustainability
Also a help of €150 for heating payments. And others, like the increase in wages, the increase in the economic benefits of social services, a renewed special energy savings plan, free public transport, the reduction in the price of school transport, the flexibility of aid to studies and higher education, the refund partial fuel taxes for professionals and reduced VAT on basic necessities.
Second, leasing measures:
Highlighting, the extension of rental contracts, the easing of requirements for rental aid, the emancipation program for young people, and the creation of the National Housing Institute.
In summary, currently we have not yet reached a point where wages and rental prices are equivalent, that is, we cannot yet say that citizens earning the minimum wage are financially able to currently pay rent.
But for this reason, many other efforts, that we have previously mentioned, are presented, in order to improve the purchasing power of our citizens, and we hope that in the future, everything will be improved, and we can all achieve economic stability.
The Management
Augé Legal & Fiscal
