Hey, I'm spanish and currently studying a degree in something related to laboral and work law in the country.
I think it would be interesting for anyone here reading this to know how is it going here and compare it with their own countries.
Sorry for any spelling mistakes that could be in the following wall of text, I'm confident I can write everything I want to say in english but there could be some mistakes or misspellings that I hope won't ruin the reading.
As a disclaimer: I'm not writting this as a way to tell you how bad is your country and how well are we doing here, this is not targeted to americans but to fellow europeans too.
Salary:
-Minimum wage recently increased from 13.510€ to 14.000€ (anual)
-Salaries in spain are usually paid monthly, with a minimum per day, and we recieve at least 2 extra pays of an equal quantity in june and december.
Cost of living
-Rent here can vary from region to region, but It is more or less a 60% of that income for a very very basic home: 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, and a kitchen in a not-so-nice neighborhood
-Groceries ant utilities can be more than 30% of that income, the energy cost has increase dramatically so it can be even more.
-Commute cost here has increased too, but usually if you live in a big city there is no need for a car since you can use public transport. Rent prices in more isolated regions are usually lower too, so the math is more or less the same.
Workers rights
– 15 days notice mandatory for both, company and worker. In case of not granting this right or honouring this duty, the worker or the company must give a monetary compensation for the other part, being the company sum far higher than the worker's
– 30 days of paid vacation time, mandatory and cannot be exchanged for money.
– Sick leaves are not paid until the 3º day. You get paid a 60% of your base salary (this is a bit more complex but close enough) the next 17 days and a 75% after that. If you are sick because your work conditions, or you have a work accident, you gent the 75% pay since day 1. This pay is divided between the company (the 60% days) and the state (the 75% days)
-Maternity and paternity leave are mandatory for the mother and equal in 16 weeks. This are paid by the state and can be consecutive except both parents work in the same place.
-Mothers have a paid leave (by the company) of 9 months (until the baby is 9 months)
-Additional hours must be signed by the worker and are not mandatory otherwise.
-Temp workers have to be permanent if they work for more than 18 months in a time lapse of 24 months
-If you are a temp and your contract ends you get 12 days per year worked as a compensation. If you are terminated because the company has financial issues you get 20 days per year. If there was no reason to terminate you you get 33 days per year.
– You can not work more than 40 hours per week as average in one year and no more than 9 hours per day.
-You have right to a day and a half of consecutive rest for every week of work
-Some others that are no that important but you can ask for if you are really interested.
Trivia
-Most of the listed rights above have to be fighted for every day, because even being law, capitalist want to take them away from us
-Mos of the people is working as a temp or as a part time permanent, so there is a “de facto” right to fire in demand, because the compensations are usually ridiculous
-There is a principle that can be roughly translated as “social dialogue” that tries to make unions, corporations and the government agree in this kind of matters. In my opinions, government and corporations are usually in the same side and the invited unions to this “debate” are far from representatives of the working class
-Minimum salary usually has no more than 7% of taxes and this includes all kind of health and unemployment coverage plus retirement and education.