Spanish federation plans for minimum wage on Continental women’s teams postponed
This article originally appeared on Velo News
Plans by the Spanish cycling federation (RFEC) to implement a minimum salary for UCI-registered women's squads have been postponed after some teams struggled to find the necessary funds.
According to Spanish sports website Relevo, the new regulations would be pushed back a year and are now set to come into force in 2024. The rules would also require teams to have a minimum roster size of eight, with a maximum of 16, as well as certain staffing requirements.
Discussions on the new regulations had been going on for some time and were sent to the teams in August. However, a meeting was held in Burgos earlier this month after teams expressed concerns that they would not be able to meet the salary requirements.
While the 14 WorldTeams are required to pay their riders a minimum salary, which is set to rise to EUR32,102 for 2023, Continental squads are not mandated to provide a wage to their riders.
Spain currently has eight Continental registered teams -- in addition to WorldTeam Movistar, which is mandated to pay a minimum salary under UCI rules. Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi was the only team expected to be able to meet the new rules, with a budget of EUR1.8 million for 2023 as it aims to get a WorldTeam license for 2024.
"We listened to the views of the women’s teams and asked them to send us a letter with a suggestion to study it," RFEC president Jose Luis Lopez Cerron told Relevo.
"The teams told us that they accepted all the conditions already in 2023, except for those related to employment contracts."
In the meeting, it was decided to postpone the implementation of the minimum salary by a year to give teams an opportunity to find the funds needed.
Once in place, the rules will require teams to register with Spain's social security and provide it's riders with the minimum inter-professional salary -- a government-mandated minimum wage. The current minimum is set at EUR1,000 per month.
In addition, the new rules set out a requirement for national professional races below the Women's WorldTour status to invite all of the Spanish Continental teams. With teams asking for the rules to be delayed for at least a year, organizers have asked for the same.
“Once the obligations of the teams are postponed for a year, the organizers also prefer to postpone theirs and be free to invite the teams they want next season,” Cerron told Relevo.
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