Spain pays salaries in 14 instalments, not 12. Every employee has a right to two extra payments a year, one of them at Christmas, so an annual salary in Spain is a 14-payment figure unless the collective agreement spreads the extras across the year. Add a sector collective agreement that sets most of the real terms, and a hiring market where employment is presumed permanent, and you have the three things that shape every Spanish offer.
This guide is built from the Workers' Statute, as published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE), and from Social Security publications. Each source is listed at the bottom, so you can check a number before it goes into an offer.
Which hiring route fits Spain?
Three ways to put someone to work in Spain: a Spanish company of your own, a freelance contract, or an employer of record (EOR).
A Spanish subsidiary pays off once Spain is a lasting market for a sizeable team. From then on, the payroll, Social Security filings and IRPF withholding are yours to run.
A freelance contract only holds if the person isn't working inside your organisation and under your direction, because that is what the Workers' Statute covers. For independent project work, Hire with Columbus handles contractor agreements and payments, from $22.50 a month per contractor.
An EOR holds the Spanish employment contract, payroll and filings while you direct the day-to-day work. With Hire with Columbus that costs from $179/month per employee, and onboarding usually takes 2 to 3 days.
Ask how the provider's model fits Spanish agency law
Spain regulates the supply of workers to another business. Only authorised temporary employment agencies, known as ETTs, can place workers with a client under the statutory agency arrangement, and those assignments have to fit a permitted temporary need. A company registration or a global EOR brand is not that authorisation.
So ask your provider which legal arrangement it uses for your role, and how it fits an ongoing job that you supervise. Under the agency rules, the placed worker is entitled to the essential pay and conditions they would get if you had hired them directly, and an unlawful assignment can make the client jointly liable.
What goes into a Spanish employment contract?
Employment in Spain is presumed indefinite. The open-ended contract is the default, and everything else needs a reason.
Written form is required for several arrangements, including part-time, fixed-discontinuous and remote work. Either way, give the employee clear written terms before they start: the employer, start date, workplace, role, gross salary and supplements, pay frequency, hours, leave, notice rules and the collective agreement that applies.
Fixed-term contracts
A fixed-term contract needs one of two grounds: production circumstances or substitution of another worker, with the reason explained. An unforeseeable rise in production normally allows up to six months, which a sector agreement can extend to one year. A generic "project" label is not a lawful ground.
Repeating temporary contracts can turn into permanent employment. The statute sets a threshold of more than 18 months within 24 months through two or more production contracts, agency placements included.
Probation
Probation must be agreed in writing, and the collective agreement can set different limits. Without one, the statutory maximums are:
| Employee | Maximum probation |
|---|---|
| Qualified technical staff | 6 months |
| Other workers | 2 months |
| Other workers, employer with fewer than 25 staff | 3 months |
| Temporary contract of up to 6 months | 1 month |
Probation can't be repeated for work the person has already done for the same employer.
The collective agreement
A collective agreement binds the employers and workers within its scope. It can set the salary scale, job classification, working time, the size and timing of the extra payments, leave and procedures. Ask which agreement applies to your hire and why, because the national minimum alone is not a complete offer.
Non-compete clauses
A post-employment non-compete needs a real commercial or industrial interest and adequate payment to the employee. It can last at most two years for technical staff and six months for everyone else.
How is a Spanish salary paid and taxed?
Regular wages are paid at least monthly, with a payslip that separates each pay component and deduction. The two extra payments come on top: one at Christmas, the other when the collective agreement says. The agreement sets their amount and can let you prorate them across 12 monthly payments.
When you write an offer, state the total annual gross salary and how it's paid. That way the extras are neither left out nor counted twice.
Minimum wage and average pay
From 1 January 2026, the minimum wage is €1,221 a month in 14 payments, or €17,094 gross a year. Spread over 12 equal payments, that is €1,424.50 a month. A higher collective-agreement floor always applies first.
As a reference point, INE, the national statistics office, puts average gross annual pay at €28,410.78 per worker in 2025, in its Annual Labour Cost Survey. It's a broad average across sectors, so price the actual role separately.
Employer and employee contributions
For an ordinary permanent hire in the General Scheme, the 2026 Social Security rates are:
| Contribution | Employer | Employee |
|---|---|---|
| Common contingencies | 23.60% | 4.70% |
| Unemployment | 5.50% | 1.55% |
| Wage guarantee fund (FOGASA) | 0.20% | None |
| Vocational training | 0.60% | 0.10% |
| Intergenerational equity mechanism (MEI) | 0.75% | 0.15% |
| Total | 30.65% | 6.50% |
Occupational injury insurance is an extra employer premium on top, set by the type of activity. Ordinary temporary contracts use a higher unemployment rate of 6.70% for the employer and 1.60% for the employee.
Contributions are charged on a monthly base that includes the prorated extra payments. In 2026 the ordinary maximum base is €5,101.20 a month. Pay above that ceiling isn't contribution-free any more: a solidarity charge applies to the excess, in three bands, at employer rates from 0.96% to 1.22%.
A worked example
The Social Security administration's own example: a permanent hire on €42,000 gross a year, paid in 14 instalments, has a monthly base of €3,500. At the standard 30.65% employer rate, employer contributions come to €12,873 a year, so salary plus contributions is €54,873.
Injury insurance, benefits, equipment and the EOR fee come on top. The €42,000 already includes the two extra payments.
Income tax
Income tax (IRPF) is withheld from each payment at a rate the employer calculates under the Agencia Tributaria's procedure. Pay, deductions and personal and family circumstances all change it, so there's no single rate to quote. The tax agency issued a new 2026 version of the calculation from 10 September 2026, and final tax also depends on the employee's autonomous community.
Social Security is paid during the following month, and the employer pays its own share plus the employee share it withheld. Withholding is filed on Form 111, usually quarterly within the first 20 calendar days after the quarter ends.
What are the working-time rules?
The maximum ordinary week is 40 hours of actual work, averaged over the year. The ordinary daily limit is nine hours, unless a collective agreement or agreement with employee representatives spreads hours differently.
You may have read about a 37.5-hour week. It is not the general limit in the statute.
Overtime has no fixed statutory premium. It must be paid at least at the ordinary hourly rate, or compensated with equivalent paid rest within four months. The ordinary cap is 80 overtime hours a year, not counting hours compensated with rest.
Workers get at least 12 hours between working days, a weekly rest of a day and a half, and a 15-minute break in any continuous stretch of more than six hours. Night work runs from 22:00 to 06:00, and night pay is set by the collective agreement, not by a fixed statutory rate.
Time records
Every employer must keep a daily record of each worker's start and finish times and keep it for four years. A flexible schedule doesn't remove the duty, so agree with your EOR how remote work, overtime and leave get recorded.
Remote work
Regular remote work, meaning at least 30% of working time over three months, needs a voluntary written agreement before it starts. It covers equipment, expenses, hours, availability, locations and monitoring. The employer provides the equipment and covers the related costs, and there's no fixed statutory monthly allowance.
How much leave do Spanish employees get?
Annual leave
Paid annual leave is at least 30 calendar days a year. On a Monday to Friday schedule that's usually 22 working days, but the entitlement is counted in calendar days. Employees must know their dates at least two months in advance, and leave is not normally swapped for cash during employment.
Public holidays in 2026
Spain has up to 14 paid labour holidays a year, two of them local. These dates apply in every autonomous community in 2026:
| Date | Holiday |
|---|---|
| Thursday 1 January | New Year's Day |
| Tuesday 6 January | Epiphany |
| Friday 3 April | Good Friday |
| Friday 1 May | Labour Day |
| Saturday 15 August | Assumption Day |
| Monday 12 October | National Day of Spain |
| Tuesday 8 December | Immaculate Conception |
| Friday 25 December | Christmas Day |
The remaining dates depend on the region and the town. Use the labour calendar for the employee's actual work location.
Sick pay
For ordinary illness, the first three days carry no statutory benefit, though the collective agreement can pay more. From day 4 to day 20 the benefit is 60% of the regulatory base, and from day 21 it's 75%.
The employer funds the benefit from day 4 to day 15. From day 16, Social Security or the mutual insurer funds it, though it's often paid through payroll. Work-related cases pay 75% from the day after the absence starts.
Birth and family leave
| Leave | Length | Pay |
|---|---|---|
| Birth and childcare, each parent | 19 weeks: 6 compulsory after birth, 11 within the first 12 months, 2 before the child turns 8 | Social Security benefit of 100% of the regulatory base |
| Single parent | 32 weeks | Social Security benefit |
| Parental leave | Up to 8 weeks before the child turns 8 | Not generally paid by the employer |
| Childcare leave of absence | Up to 3 years | Unpaid, job protected |
Birth leave is the same for both parents, and the right belongs to each one individually. For a child under nine months, a parent can also take an hour's paid absence a day, or build it up into full days.
Short paid absences
The statute gives 15 calendar days for marriage or registered partnership, five days for a covered relative's serious illness or hospitalisation, and two days for a relative's death, plus two if travel is needed. Urgent family illness or accident can also justify paid absence of up to four working days a year.
How do dismissals work in Spain?
How a Spanish employment ends decides what it costs. The route, the reason and the paperwork all matter.
Objective dismissal
An objective dismissal needs a written reason, 15 days' notice and compensation of 20 days' salary per year of service, capped at 12 months' pay. During the notice, the employee gets six paid hours a week to look for work. Compensation is normally made available when the notice is handed over.
Disciplinary dismissal
A disciplinary dismissal needs a serious, culpable breach and a written notice of the facts and effective date. The Supreme Court has ruled that the employee must have a chance to respond to the allegations first. Poor performance is not automatically serious misconduct.
If a dismissal is ruled unfair
| Situation | Compensation | Cap |
|---|---|---|
| Lawful objective dismissal | 20 days' salary per year of service | 12 months' pay |
| Unfair dismissal | 33 days' salary per year of service | 24 months' pay |
| End of a lawful fixed-term contract | 12 days' salary per year of service | None stated |
After an unfair-dismissal ruling, the employer normally chooses between compensation and reinstatement within five days. Employees usually have 20 working days to challenge a dismissal. A dismissal linked to pregnancy, family leave or a protected care request can be declared null, which normally means reinstatement and back pay.
Final settlement and resignation
Whatever the route, the final settlement (finiquito) pays outstanding wages, the accrued share of the extra payments and unused leave. Severance is separate from that.
Resignation notice is set by the collective agreement or local custom. There is no universal statutory 15-day rule.
What else does a Spanish hire need?
Right to work. Check the candidate's current permission and whether it covers Spanish employment before you fix a start date. The highly skilled routes under Law 14/2013 can grant up to three years.
The international teleworker (digital nomad) route is for people working for companies outside Spain, so it doesn't cover a job with a Spanish employer.
Employee data. Payroll processing can rest on the contract or a legal obligation, so it doesn't need consent for every use. Remote monitoring has to respect privacy, and employees have a right to disconnect.
What changes as your team grows?
Every employer must keep a pay register showing mean and median pay by sex across job groups. An equality plan, including a pay audit, generally becomes mandatory at 50 workers.
Collective-dismissal rules can apply when job losses over 90 days reach 10 in a business with fewer than 100 workers, 10% with 100 to 300, or 30 above 300. Through an EOR, it's the employing company's headcount that counts, so ask your provider which thresholds apply.
What has changed recently?
- 1 January 2026: new minimum wage. €1,221 a month in 14 payments, or €17,094 a year.
- 1 January 2026: contribution rates and ceiling. The maximum monthly base is €5,101.20, and the solidarity charge applies above it.
- 1 January 2026: extra birth-leave weeks. The two weeks usable before a child turns eight can now be requested, including for births from 2 August 2024.
- 10 September 2026: new withholding version. The Agencia Tributaria published an updated 2026 IRPF withholding calculation.
Hiring in Spain with Hire with Columbus
We take on the employer role in Spain: the contract, the 14 payments, Social Security, IRPF and the daily time records. Your team picks the candidate and runs the work.
Employees cost from $179/month each and contractors from $22.50/month, and onboarding usually takes 2 to 3 days after your candidate accepts. Compare the plans on our pricing page, or start a hire.
Sources
Each figure above is taken from one of these official pages, most of them in Spanish.
- BOE, Workers' Statute (Estatuto de los Trabajadores) (checked 14 September 2026)
- BOE, Temporary Employment Agencies Act (checked 14 September 2026)
- BOE, Written information on employment terms (checked 14 September 2026)
- BOE, 2026 minimum wage (as of 1 January 2026)
- INE, Annual Labour Cost Survey 2025 (published 23 July 2026)
- Seguridad Social, General Scheme contribution rates and bases (as of 1 January 2026)
- BOE, 2026 Social Security contribution order (as of 1 January 2026)
- Agencia Tributaria, IRPF withholding rates from 10 September 2026 (as of 10 September 2026)
- BOE, 2026 labour holiday calendar (checked 14 September 2026)
- Seguridad Social, Birth and childcare benefit (checked 14 September 2026)
- BOE, Royal Decree-law 9/2025 on birth and childcare leave (as of 1 January 2026)
- Seguridad Social, Temporary disability benefit (checked 14 September 2026)
- Seguridad Social, Temporary disability: who pays (checked 14 September 2026)
- Consejo General del Poder Judicial, Supreme Court ruling on hearing before disciplinary dismissal (checked 14 September 2026)
- BOE, Law 14/2013, international mobility (checked 14 September 2026)
- BOE, Remote Work Act (checked 14 September 2026)
- Agencia Española de Protección de Datos, Processing data without consent (checked 14 September 2026)
- BOE, Royal Decree 902/2020 on equal pay (checked 14 September 2026)
Frequently asked questions
How much does an EOR cost in Spain?
Hire with Columbus employs people in Spain from $179 per employee per month, with no setup fee. That covers the Spanish employment contract, the 14-payment payroll, Social Security contributions and income tax withholding. The bigger cost is the employer contributions on top of salary, which start at 30.65% of the contribution base for a standard permanent hire.
How long does it take to hire someone in Spain?
Onboarding through Hire with Columbus typically takes 2 to 3 days once your candidate has accepted. Before you fix a start date, check that the candidate has permission to work in Spain for this employer and role. An EOR agreement is not immigration approval.
What does an employer pay on top of gross salary in Spain?
For a standard permanent hire in 2026, employer Social Security rates add up to 30.65%: 23.60% common contingencies, 5.50% unemployment, 0.20% FOGASA, 0.60% vocational training and 0.75% MEI. Occupational injury insurance comes on top, set by the type of activity. Contributions stop at a maximum base of €5,101.20 a month, except for a solidarity charge on pay above it.
What is the notice period for terminating an employee in Spain?
It depends on the termination route. An objective dismissal needs 15 days' written notice, with six paid hours a week for job searching, plus compensation of 20 days' salary per year of service. A disciplinary dismissal follows a different process, and resignation notice is set by the collective agreement or local custom.
Is a 13th-month salary mandatory in Spain?
Yes, and there are two of them. Every employee has a right to two extra payments a year, one at Christmas and one when the collective agreement sets it, so salaries are usually paid in 14 instalments. The collective agreement sets the amount and can allow the extras to be spread across 12 monthly payments.
How much paid leave are employees entitled to in Spain?
At least 30 calendar days of paid annual leave a year, which is usually 22 working days on a Monday to Friday schedule. Employees must know their dates at least two months in advance. Spain also has up to 14 paid labour holidays a year, two of them set locally.
What is the difference between hiring an employee and a contractor in Spain?
Spanish law covers paid work done within another person's organisation and under their direction, so how the work runs matters more than what the contract calls it. If the person works like your employee, a freelance label won't protect you. For genuinely independent work, Hire with Columbus can run contractor agreements and payments from $22.50 per contractor per month.
What changed in Spain
Checked against official sources on .
No rule changes recorded since we began logging them.