The 2019 increase in the minimum wage hit the smallest businesses hardest: it affected 100% of micro and only 2% of large companies.

The uninterrupted increases in the Interprofessional Minimum Wage (SMI) since 2018 have had negative effects, especially in companies with fewer employees , warns Fedea researcher Marcel Jansen, in the presentation of a study on the impact of the SMI, and is that, among the affected companies, the percentage is decreasing depending on the number of employees, with a median value of 100% for companies with fewer than 5 workers and 2% for companies with more than 250 employees .

The report points to evidence that in companies with up to 50 employees, jobs are lost (in the case of small companies) or their creation is reduced (above that number of employees) in situations of sudden increases in the minimum wage. Meanwhile, for companies with more than 50 employees, the impact is primarily felt in the flow of workers (entries and departures).

Jansen singled out companies with fewer than 50 employees, which have seen their minimum wage grow by 61% since 2018. Furthermore, he rejected the proposal by Second Vice President and Minister of Labor Yolanda Díaz to establish by law that this indicator be updated annually to be tied to 60% of the average salary in Spain, calling it "very ambitious" given that Spain has an unemployment rate double the European average and a labor market with a high level of precariousness.

Furthermore, the study also shows that the increase in the minimum wage had a very significant impact on employment during the first 12 months. In establishments where the entire workforce was affected , wage growth increased by 11.4%, while employment growth decreased by 4.5%.