The objective of the second part of the pension reform is to resolve how Social Security can pay for the increase in spending derived from the first part of the reform. To try to make the system sustainable in the medium and long term, the Government deploys a flurry of measures, such as the introduction of a dual procedure for calculating the initial pension, which will allow the worker to choose between the last 25 years of activity or 29 years without counting the two worst; a drop in prices; the rise in contribution rates linked to the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI) or the introduction of a solidarity quota. Let’s see what this last measure is about and what salaries will be the most affected by the reform.

With the aim of improving the income of the system, the Government’s proposal proposes the creation of a “solidarity quota” on the part of the salary that is currently not quoted for exceeding the maximum contribution limit, which will be 1% in 2025 and will go increasing at a rate of 0.25 points per year until reaching 6% in 2045, reports Europa Press.

At 6%, the company will be responsible for 5% of the quota and the worker 1%. The result is that the maximum contribution bases will have an additional quota that will not mean an improvement in the pensions of these workers.

This measure will affect those people who have salaries of more than 53,946 euros in 2023, with a monthly contribution base of more than 4,000 euros. The average maximum base in the EU is 6,000 euros.

In this way, in a monthly salary of 10,000 euros, the solidarity quota would be applied to the 5,500 euros that exceed the maximum base of 4,495.50 euros; in 2025 the price would be 55 euros (1%) and would increase until reaching 330 euros (6%) in 2045.

It remains to be defined with the social agents whether the solidarity quota for the part of the salary that at any time does not contribute to the pension system due to exceeding the maximum provided is limited to the General Scheme or extends beyond.

The measure has not been well received by businessmen, beginning with the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, who has described the creation of this solidarity quota as a “brutal tax against talent”. For his part, the president of the Association of Self-Employed Workers (ATA), Lorenzo Amor, believes that it is “a tax disguised as a solidarity fee” and questions whether “those who contribute 4,495 euros and those who contribute 4,495 euros” are considered “rich”. The best comes to his account 3,000 euros “It is the height of nonsense,” insists Amor.

In its provisional balance on the budgetary effects of the pension reform, the Foundation for Applied Economics Studies (Fedea) estimates that the impact of the measures “will be very limited”, largely because they are concentrated “in a very small segment ” of the wage bill, which corresponds to that part of wages that is above the current maximum contribution base, which only accounts for 2.6% of GDP and 5.3% of total labor income . According to the organization’s calculations, once fully deployed in 2050, the uncapping of contributions will increase collection by 0.15 points of GDP and the introduction of the solidarity quota for the highest salaries will do so by an additional 0.13 points. .

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