The end of the integral salary?

Why are we facing the technical elimination of this figure?

From a legal-labor perspective, the viability of the integral salary is being eroded on three main fronts:

1.     By law, the integral salary cannot be lower than 13 SMLMV (10 as the salary factor + 3 as the benefits factor). With the minimum wage set at $1,750,095 for 2026, the minimum hiring base has skyrocketed from $18,505,500 (in 2025) to $22,751,235. This increase forces companies to:

• Make massive adjustments to high-level payroll to avoid falling into illegality for being below the integral minimum.
• Face a regression in benefits, since positions that were previously integral now barely exceed the threshold, losing competitiveness compared to the ordinary scheme.

2.     As the salary factor increases, the cost of social security and parafiscal contributions increases proportionally. Even for the highest salaries, the contribution ceiling of 25 SMLMV now reaches $43,772,625, eliminating the administrative and financial savings that originally justified this figure.

3.     Legally, the integral salary is an exception to the general rule of benefits. Faced with such an aggressive increase, many companies choose to maintain high salaries under ordinary schemes to control cash flow. However, this creates a risk of ‘de facto salaries,’ where the lack of a clear structure of non-salary payments may result in claims for the ineffectiveness of benefit-exclusion clauses.

For these reasons, we must move from Reactivity to Transformation, as the figure that once sought to simplify the labor relationship with managerial personnel has become an indexed burden that responds not to productivity but to a political and macroeconomic metric.

It is not only about paying more; it is about paying better. In the decline of the integral model, the solution is not to wait but to evolve toward the Strategic Ordinary Salary.

How do we mitigate this impact with our support?

Our firm has designed a Safe Transition Roadmap, where we turn a cost crisis into an opportunity for protection:

• We transition from integral to ordinary salaries, building compensation schemes and non-salary structures that allow the worker to maintain their net income while the company optimizes its benefit burdens under the new legal ceilings.