Iberian Minimum Wages

This chapter compares national minimumwage policymaking in Portugal (2016–2022) and Spain (2019–2025) and explains why two inclusive, yet distinct, trajectories emerged. Both governments delivered substantial upratings – a cumulative rise of about 40% in Portugal and about 61% in Spain – advancing an inclusive solidarity that lifts the wage floor for all workers. The chapter argues that divergence stems from three interacting factors: governing social blocs and their cohesion; the decisionmaking arena chosen to authorise change; and the role of the European Union. In Portugal, the European Union initially acted as a brake, discouraging steep upratings and pushing the government towards negotiated, concertationcentred increases paired with compensation to employers; only later did a more social turn relax these constraints. In Spain, executive initiative, expert benchmarking, and selective social pacts, backed by European Union norms, frontloaded larger increases and normalised rapid convergence.