Spain's Government assures unions civil servants will get a 5% pay rise in 2027

Spain's Ministry of Public Function has assured the unions that the 5% pay rise for more than three million public employees will go ahead in 2027 despite the snap election. What it has not specified is whether it will approve it before or after the November 29 elections.

Public Function officials have guaranteed the unions that the **5%** pay rise for more than **three million** public employees will be applied in **2027**, despite the early election. Union sources confirmed this at the end of the meeting between government officials and representatives of **CC OO**, **UGT** and **CSIF**. The rise was pledged in the Government's latest agreement with the sector, in **November 2025**.

The Ministry headed by **Óscar López** has not told the civil service unions when these rises will be approved, whether before or after the **November 29** elections. The pay increases will come in two phases: the first will take effect from **January 1, 2027** and will raise all public employees' salaries by **4.5%**, as set out in the latest multi-year agreement covering **2025-2028**.

## Two phases: 4.5% in January and 0.5% for the CPI overshoot

On top of this rise, public employees will receive at some point in the first quarter of 2027 the **0.5%** adjustment corresponding to the 2026 inflation overshoot. This pay update, which must be applied retroactively from **January 1, 2026**, was already approved by the Government and Parliament and published in the **official state gazette (BOE) of December 2, 2025**.

Specifically, the Government committed in that agreement to raise by **0.5%** the salaries in force on **December 31, 2025**, with retroactive effect from **January 1, 2026**, if that year's CPI exceeded **1.5%**. With two months still to go before the year ends, inflation is certain to come in well above that figure: in **September** it climbed to **4.9%**, and the annual average is expected to be around **3.5%**. But the commitment specifies that this update will be paid to public employees "in the first quarter of 2027", since the Government must wait for the **INE** (Spain's statistics institute) to confirm the December CPI in mid-January next year.

For this reason, the first thing those responsible for designing public employees' payslips will do is apply the **4.5%** rise to the January payroll. Later they will apply the **0.5%** to the December 2025 payslips and then recalculate all resulting salaries with the **4.5%** rise.

## Unions call for the 4.5% to be approved before November 24

The unions have demanded that the Government approve this final **4.5%** increase before the elections, specifically at one of the Cabinet meetings to be held up to **November 24**, the date of the last Cabinet meeting before the **November 29** vote. The aim, **CSIF** explains, is to avoid the delays that can arise from the limitations placed on the Government once it is in a caretaker role.

The civil servants' union says the Government has also signalled it is preparing a reform to remove managers of administrations that abuse temporary contracts in the public sector. However, this measure, along with others addressing the problem of abuse of chained temporary contracts in public administrations, particularly regional governments, local authorities and universities, is unlikely to be approved during the electoral period, according to sources familiar with the ministry's offer. Indeed, the Government is awaiting the possibility that the **European Commission** will take Spain to task, in an open infringement procedure, for failing to carry out a reform ending the abuse of temporary employment in the public sector and establishing compensation for those affected by this abusive situation.

## Partial retirement and the replacement rate, the outstanding issues

**CC OO** and **UGT** have also pressed for pogre on eliminating or reforming the current replacement rate model (which prevents replacing all civil servants who retire); on updating residence and service-related allowances; and on improving conditions for staff posted abroad in the Foreign Service.

The unions have also reminded the Government of commitments still outstanding from the previous Framework Agreement for a 21st Century Administration, signed only by **CC OO** and **UGT**, such as introducing partial early retirement for civil servants and statutory staff and completing the work on professional classification. So far, the Government has only managed to approve, in **July**, partial retirement for labour staff across all public administrations, but not for civil servants. That retirement scheme was included in the Socialist amendments to the Public Function Law, which has been stuck in Congress for more than two years. In that bill, now lapsed, the Socialists also planned to allow public employees to remain active, on a voluntary basis, up to the age of **72**.