Amor (ATA): "Termina una legislatura nefasta, hay autónomos que ganan a final de mes menos que su propio trabajador"

The organization ATA has denounced that 63% of the autonomous collective earn less than the minimum wage, while contributions have increased by 36%. The decline in professionals employing others has worsened the loss of employers. As general elections approach on November 29th, the final balance of the last legislature leaves much to be desired for the autonomous collective.

ATA president Lorenzo Amor presented a motion to adjust all economic and labor policies of the Government regarding self-employment. Despite the quantitative increase in RETA affiliates, the organization points to a scenario of pronounced financial precariousness, administrative choke, and a decline in business margins. This marks the end of a legislature that has been detrimental to the self-employed.

There are more self-employed, but poorer, Amor criticized during the celebration of the 25th Autonomous Year Awards. He emphasized the deterioration of the collective's conditions, burdened by what he called a spiral of more obstacles, more procedures, and more obligations. According to the organization's estimates, self-employed professionals are forced to dedicate 200 hours annually exclusively to administrative management outside their productive activity, resulting in a medium cost overrun of €3,000 per business and an added bill to the productive fabric of €10,300 million.

This bureaucratic pressure is accompanied by a climate of juridical and tax insecurity, discouraging taxpayers from exercising their ordinary fiscal rights. Self-employed people no longer deduct expenses because they may be audited, lamented Amor. All these burdens are compounded by the increase in labor costs due to the accumulated rise in bases and premiums linked to successive hikes in the minimum wage, which, in addition to hindering job creation and the growth of workforces and businesses, is tightening margins for employed self-employed individuals.

The increase in contributions by 36% from 2018 to 2025 has left autonomous activity without justification, according to the organization. Only 63% of self-employed individuals declare net earnings below the minimum wage, a gap that results in a dire reality where many earn less than their own workers at month-end. The direct result of this constriction of margins is a contraction of the workforce with employees, with fewer self-employed employers and less job creation by the self-employed.