Employers will pay less for a self-employed person than for an employee

The Government will implement measures to prevent fraud

After several months of negotiations, the new contribution system for the self-employed, which guarantees unemployment and social benefits by raising the contribution by €5.36 per month, has been approved by the Social Dialogue Board - employers and unions - which have included specifications to prevent employers from committing fraud by hiring false self-employed workers.

These measures are driven by the fear that employers might be tempted to hire false self-employed workers instead of employees, since for the first time in the history of Social Security the minimum contribution bases have been decoupled to prevent the increase in the Minimum Interprofessional Salary (SMI) by 22%, to 900 euros per month, from also affecting an increase in the contributions of the self-employed, by 12%, that is, 400 euros more per year, "something unaffordable for the group of self-employed workers" according to the president of the National Federation of Associations of Self-Employed Workers (ATA), Lorenzo Amor.

"This is the first time this has happened, but it is not a big deal, as for many years the minimum wages for self-employed workers have been higher than those of the General Regime," says Amor, who at the same time insists that the Government must implement a series of measures to prevent business owners from committing this fraud.

Social Dialogue Table

For this reason, among the changes proposed by the Social Dialogue Board is one related to a series of measures that prevent companies from committing fraud by requiring companies to register the contracts of Economically Dependent Workers (Trades) and the establishment of a sanctioning system for those companies that do not comply. According to Upta, this measure is intended to prevent employers from being tempted to hire self-employed workers as false self-employed workers since "it will be much cheaper than hiring a salaried worker who will have to pay more due to the increase in the SMI". The main self-employed associations, ATA and the Union of Self-Employed Professionals and Workers (Upta) celebrate that the Social Dialogue Board has given its approval to the agreement that they had already agreed with the Government to establish a new contribution system that will increase the minimum base by 1.25%.

Now all that remains is to take the final step. The Government will have to approve this measure in the Council of Ministers, through a Royal Decree, so that the self-employed can benefit from this new contribution system from January.

Source: elEconomista.es