Hiring in Spain

An overseas company can hire in Spain through direct employer registration, an employer of record arrangement that satisfies Spain’s worker-supply rules, or a contract for genuinely independent services. A full-time offer must meet the €17,094 annual minimum in 2026. For independent services, 4dev.com is a global contractor platform working with contractors in Spain.

Three ways to hire in Spain

The legal employer and the party directing day-to-day work determine which route fits.

Route	Legal employer	What you pay on top of salary	How you end it
Your own entity	Your Spanish entity, or your foreign company after it has registered directly in Spain	30.65% fixed employer component for an ordinary indefinite General Regime hire, before the conditional accident tariff and above-cap solidarity levy	The employment ground matters: 0 or 15 days is a shorthand for the absence of a fixed advance-notice period for disciplinary dismissal or the 15-day objective-dismissal notice; it does not cover every ending.
Employer of record	The party that actually employs the worker; temporary supply requires an authorised ETT	Statutory employment costs and the provider’s contractual charge	A temporary assignment needs a lawful temporary or training basis, with duration tied to that employment route.
Contractor	The contractor’s own business, where the service is genuinely autonomous	No salary line for a genuine independent service; the commercial terms are contractual	The service agreement sets the ending, but a label does not convert client-directed work into independent activity.

A foreign company with no Spanish work centre can register directly as an employer, without incorporating a Spanish subsidiary, if it provides the required corporate documents and appoints a legal representative domiciled in Spain. The company then carries the employment, payroll and contribution obligations described below.

The employer of record label does not settle Spain’s worker-supply question. Under Article 43 of the Workers’ Statute, temporary supply may be carried out only through an authorised ETT, and the arrangement can be illegal where it merely makes a worker available, the supplier lacks its own stable organisation or means, or it does not perform employer functions. A genuine contractor works outside the client’s organisation and direction; where the client instead directs the work, the facts point to employment rather than an independent-services route.

Spain’s labour market in salary surveys

National salary averages provide a budget starting point when the survey population and year match the proposed hire.

Salary reference points

National annual gross salary	€28,410.78 / year (2025) — General Regime contribution accounts in CNAE sections B–S, plus maritime transport in the Sea Regime, nationwide	INE EACL 2025
Directors and managers	€63,865.45 / year — 2024 annual gross average for the broad occupational group	INE EAES 2024 release
Technicians and professionals	€40,554.53 / year — 2024 annual gross average for the broad occupational group	INE EAES 2024 occupation tables
Non-public-facing office employees	€29,918.88 / year — 2024 annual gross average for the broad occupational group	INE EAES 2024 occupation tables

The 2025 EACL figure covers its stated contribution-account population; the 2024 EAES figures are broad occupational averages from a different survey. They do not establish a software-engineer rate or a Madrid or Barcelona premium. Match the proposed role and location to the applicable collective agreement before setting the offer.

In the 2025 EACL, 95.4% of establishments, representing 86.7% of workers, regulated employment through collective agreements. The next check is therefore the agreement covering the proposed role.

Which collective agreement sets the offer?

Identify the applicable convenio before quoting salary, probation, extra-pay timing or resignation notice. The agreement can set pay minima and the amount and timing of the two statutory extra payments, including whether they may be prorated across 12 cash payments. It can also set probation limits; where it does not, the statutory maximum is six months for qualified technicians, two months for other workers, or three months for nontechnicians at employers with fewer than 25 workers. Employee-resignation notice is likewise set by the applicable agreement or local custom, so a national salary reference cannot supply those terms.

Run the contribution-group check separately from the agreement review. For 2026, the monthly common-contingencies base floor is €1,989.30 for group 1, €1,649.70 for group 2, €1,435.20 for group 3 and €1,424.40 for groups 4–7; these are contribution-base floors, not a sector pay scale. Where proration is permitted, the annual SMI floor appears as €1,424.50 across 12 cash payments. That cash presentation does not replace the contribution-group test.

Identify the agreement and role classification first. Then set annual gross and its cash schedule, and test the applicable contribution-group base. A survey average or the national SMI alone cannot settle the offer.

Registering as an employer, step by step

A direct foreign employer must prepare its tax and Social Security registrations and file the employee’s alta before work begins. The steps have separate deadlines and can overlap; agency processing time depends on the case.

Step	What happens	Takes
Prepare the foreign-employer route	A company with no Spanish work centre prepares the required corporate documents and appoints a legal representative domiciled in Spain.	Allow for agency processing; the duration varies.
Enrol in the tax census	File Modelo 036 for the taxpayer, employer and withholder census; a nonresident may file through the representative’s AEAT office or where it operates.	Before activity, transactions or a withholding obligation arise.
Register the employer	Use TA.6 and the main Código de Cuenta de Cotización for employer registration and the principal contribution account.	Allow for agency processing; the duration varies.
Check provincial accounts	Use TA.7 where the employer operates in another province, or where a separate account is needed for a particular worker group.	Conditional on the employer’s operating facts; not a universal gateway.
Register the employee	File the General Regime alta before employment starts.	Up to 60 calendar days before the start date.

Corporate, tax and Social Security preparation can overlap. TA.7 applies only where a separate provincial or worker-group account is needed, while the employee’s alta must be filed before the first working day. Build in time for the agencies to process the employer registrations.

Hiring and onboarding

Before the first working day, align the employment terms, the applicable convenio, the worker’s status and the required registrations.

Contract and legal limits

For an ongoing role, assess the indefinite employment route. If unexpected production circumstances justify a fixed term, document that ground and keep within the general six-month limit, which a sector collective agreement may extend to one year. Probation must be agreed in writing and follows the applicable agreement. Statutory fallback for qualified technicians: Up to 6 months. Without an agreement term, the maximum is two months for other workers, or three months for nontechnicians at employers with fewer than 25 workers. Set annual gross and the two-extra-payment schedule under the agreement, including whether it permits proration across 12 cash payments.

Onboarding checklist

• Confirm the worker’s eligibility to work in Spain where an authorisation is required; the non-EU route is considered in the next section.
• Identify the applicable convenio and contribution group before finalising the annual gross, probation and extra-pay schedule.
• Complete the employer’s relevant tax and Social Security registration requirements, then ensure the worker’s General Regime alta is filed before the start date.
• Record the agreed start date and ordinary working hours; daily records must show each worker’s start and end time and be retained for four years.

Review additional clauses and contract language against the applicable agreement and role.

Can a non-EU national start work in Spain?

For the ordinary overseas-hire route, the employer applies for the initial residence and employee-work authorisation; filing it does not itself permit the worker to start.

This route concerns a foreign national older than 16 hired for more than 90 days. The employer must be registered with Social Security, current on tax and contribution obligations, and have adequate resources for the project and employment obligations. The administration has three months from receipt by the competent body to decide, and silence may be treated as a refusal, so that period is neither a guaranteed onboarding time nor the earliest start date.

Under Real Decreto 1155/2024, the initial authorisation normally lasts for the activity period up to one year and is limited to an autonomous-community area and a specified occupation, subject to statutory and treaty exceptions. Plan the role, location and timing around the actual authorisation rather than treating the initial permit as universally portable.

Spain’s 2026 exceptional in-country authorisation was separate from this ordinary route: its specified application route ended on 30 June 2026. It does not replace the employer-filed overseas-hire process or create a general permit for an overseas candidate.

Minimum wage in Spain

The 2026 statutory minimum is €1,221 / month (14 pays), effective 1 January 2026, with a full-time annual floor of €17,094.

2020 SMI	€950 / month on 14 payments — effective 1 January 2020	BOE SMI 2020
2021 SMI	€965 / month on 14 payments — effective September 2021	BOE SMI 2021
2022 SMI	€1,000 / month on 14 payments — effective 1 January 2022	BOE SMI 2022
2023 SMI	€1,080 / month on 14 payments — effective 1 January 2023	BOE SMI 2023
2024 SMI	€1,134 / month on 14 payments — effective 1 January 2024	BOE SMI 2024
2025 SMI	€1,184 / month on 14 payments — effective 1 January 2025	BOE SMI 2025
2026 SMI	€1,221 / month (14 pays) — effective 1 January 2026	BOE SMI 2026

The monthly figures all use the statutory 14-payment basis. The 2021 rate took effect in September, so the table records the rate from that date and does not present it as a full-year annual amount.

The applicable convenio can set a higher minimum and determines the relevant pay structure. Where that agreement permits the two extra payments to be prorated, the €17,094 annual floor is presented as €1,424.50 across 12 cash payments; it is not a different statutory monthly minimum. An hourly or net amount depends on the schedule and individual tax position.

Does a 14-payment salary cost more than 12 payments?

No: the annual offer is the stable figure, while the 12- or 14-payment arrangement changes the cash schedule only where the applicable convenio permits it.

At the 2026 full-time SMI floor, the annual gross is €17,094 and the statutory presentation is €1,221 on 14 payments. If the applicable agreement permits proration, the same annual floor is €1,424.50 across 12 cash payments. The two extra payments are already part of that annual amount, so adding them again would double-count the offer.

For a monthly-paid worker, each monthly contribution base includes the proportional share of estimated extraordinary payments, producing 12 bases across the year. That rule applies even where the cash schedule retains 14 payments, so a change in cash timing does not create an additional annual salary or a thirteenth contribution base.

Set annual gross first, then confirm the convenio’s cash schedule and contribution group. The salary scenarios below already include extraordinary pay.

Taxes and contributions

Employee IRPF withholding: Varies by income and region. Spain combines a state general-income scale with an autonomous-community scale; employer cost is calculated separately.

For an ordinary indefinite General Regime hire, 30.65% is the fixed employer component: 23.60% common contingencies, 5.50% unemployment, 0.20% FOGASA, 0.60% vocational training and 0.75% MEI. It is not an all-in rate: the work-accident tariff depends on the activity or occupation, and solidarity applies above the ordinary contribution cap. The worked scenarios use the 1.50% tariff only where the employee qualifies for exclusive office work under the tariff conditions.

What an employee actually costs you

Scenario	Annual gross	Monthly employer contributions / effective rate	Annual employer cost
2025 EACL national salary reference	€28,410.78	€761.19 / 32.15%	€37,545.06
2024 technicians and professionals occupational average	€40,554.53	€1,086.52 / 32.15%	€53,592.77
2024 salaried managers occupational average	€63,865.45	€1,642.16 / 30.86%	€83,571.37
Hypothetical €100,000 annual offer	€100,000	€1,674.47 / 20.09%	€120,093.64

The first row uses the 2025 EACL population, while the next two use 2024 broad occupational averages; the final row is a hypothetical offer, not an observed salary. All four scenarios use 2026 rates, an indefinite ordinary General Regime contract, 12 equal contribution bases and the qualifying exclusive-office assumption. Annual gross already includes extraordinary pay; the calculations exclude incentives, overtime, optional benefits, provider charges, owner-directors, statutory directors and special registration cases, and an annual total may not equal 12 times a rounded monthly display.

Apply the relevant contribution-group floor separately: €1,989.30 for group 1, €1,649.70 for group 2, €1,435.20 for group 3 or €1,424.40 for groups 4–7.

Why does the cost percentage fall above the cap?

The ordinary General Regime monthly contribution base caps at €5,101.20, so an above-cap offer does not keep applying every ordinary component to each additional euro. The employer instead applies the solidarity levy marginally: 0.96% on €5,101.21–€5,611.32, 1.04% on €5,611.33–€7,651.80 and 1.22% above €7,651.80. That is why the manager and hypothetical-offer scenarios have lower effective employer percentages even though they include solidarity charges.

Use the 2026 contribution order to check the applicable base, contract type and tariff before relying on a scenario. A fixed-term contract has a different unemployment rate, and a role that does not meet the exclusive-office definition needs its own activity or occupation tariff.

Working time and overtime

Spain’s statutory ceiling is 40 effective working hours a week averaged over the year; the applicable convenio or contract can set a shorter schedule. Overtime is generally capped at 80 hours a year, with statutory exceptions for compensatory rest and urgent extraordinary damage; a shorter annual schedule reduces the cap proportionally. The agreement or, failing that, the individual contract determines whether overtime is paid or exchanged for equivalent paid rest, but payment cannot be below the ordinary hourly value. Without an agreement on compensation, equivalent rest is due within four months.

The employer must keep a daily record of each worker’s actual start and end times for four years. Congress returned the proposed 37.5-hour maximum and strengthened time-record bill to government on 10 September 2025, so it is not the current statutory ceiling. The Ministry’s digital-record text remains a project, not an enacted nationwide requirement or a fixed implementation date; the present duty is the daily record required by the Workers’ Statute.

Leave, sick pay and parental leave

Annual paid vacation is at least 30 calendar days; the applicable agreement or individual contract can provide more. For ordinary illness or a nonwork accident, the statutory temporary-incapacity benefit is 60% of the regulatory base on days 4–20 and 75% from day 21. The employer bears the ordinary-sickness benefit from days 4–15; from day 16, the INSS or mutual insurer bears it. Agreement top-ups are separate from that statutory allocation.

Under the expanded birth-and-care regime, each parent receives 19 weeks: six compulsory full-time weeks immediately after birth, 11 weeks usable during the first 12 months, and two weeks usable until the child turns eight. The Social Security benefit is 100% of the regulatory base, subject to eligibility, so this is not a rule that the employer funds the entire leave as salary.

The 2025 transitional rule is narrower than a general retroactive 19-week entitlement. It applies the additional flexible weeks to qualifying events from 2 August 2024, with leave and benefit claims possible from 1 January 2026.

Which public holidays apply to your employee?

Up to 14 days is Spain’s annual limit for paid, nonrecoverable public holidays, including two local holidays. The calendar is not uniform nationwide: it depends on the employee’s autonomous community and municipality. Before confirming a start date, work schedule or staffing plan, identify the employee’s work location, check that year’s regional and municipal calendar, and read it alongside the applicable convenio. Do not use a national date list as a substitute for the local calendar.

Termination: notice and payments

The 0 or 15 days shorthand distinguishes disciplinary dismissal, for which Article 55 fixes no advance-notice period, from objective dismissal; it is not a universal Spain notice rule.

Ground or route	Required step	Outcome or limit
Objective dismissal	Written reasons and 15 days’ notice	20 days’ pay per year of service, capped at 12 monthly payments
Disciplinary dismissal	Serious culpable breach; written notice stating the facts and effective date	No fixed Article 55 advance-notice period; the convenio may add formal requirements
Employee resignation	Notice set by the applicable convenio or local custom	No fixed national notice period
Dismissal held unfair	The employer generally chooses the remedy	Reinstatement or 33 days’ salary per year of service, capped at 24 monthly payments
Protected birth or parental-leave situation	Check the protected period and facts	The dismissal can be void, requiring reinstatement

Before budgeting an exit, establish the dismissal ground and whether statutory protection applies. The unfair-dismissal remedy follows only if a dismissal is held unfair; a protected-period dismissal can instead be void. Check the convenio for any added disciplinary formalities and for resignation notice.

Recent changes that affect a Spain hire

Spain’s recent employment changes include enacted 2026 pay and contribution rules, a narrow parental-leave transition, and proposals or future parameters that are not yet part of a 2026 employment cost.

• Enacted from 1 January 2026 — pay and MEI. The statutory minimum is €1,221 a month on a 14-payment basis, with a €17,094 annual floor. The 2026 MEI rate is 0.75% for the employer and 0.15% for the worker on the common-contingencies contribution base.
• Enacted on 31 July 2025, with a 2026 claim date for a limited transition. The birth-and-care expansion provides 19 weeks per parent, but the transitional provision does not make that whole entitlement retroactive. It permits claims from 1 January 2026 for the additional flexible weeks where the qualifying event occurred on or after 2 August 2024.
• Rejected and draft working-time measures. On 10 September 2025, Congress returned the 37.5-hour and strengthened time-record bill to the Government, so it is not the current statutory maximum. A Ministry text on digital time recording remains a project in consultation, rather than an enacted nationwide requirement with a fixed start date.
• Enacted future parameter — 1 January 2027. The MEI is scheduled to reach 1%, split 0.83% employer and 0.17% worker. That future rate does not belong in the 2026 employer-cost examples or contribution calculations on this page.

What a mistake costs and who pays

The cost of a mistake depends on the breach and who performed the employer functions.

Party	Risk	Amount
Foreign employer	Employer or worker registration is not completed for the employment	The amount depends on the registration breach and the applicable penalty provision.
Supplier and client	Illegal worker supply	Joint liability for employment and Social Security obligations; prohibited supply is a very serious infringement, with a graded general fine of €7,501–€225,018.
Employer	Objective dismissal does not meet its statutory route, a dismissal is held unfair, or a protected dismissal is void	A qualifying objective route carries 20 days’ pay per year, capped at 12 monthly payments; an unfair dismissal can mean reinstatement or 33 days’ salary per year, capped at 24 monthly payments. A void dismissal requires reinstatement.
Employer	Statutory wage, overtime or time-record duty is not met	The amount depends on the duty breached and the applicable penalty provision.

When worker supply is prohibited, the worker may choose permanent employment with either the supplier or the client. A genuinely independent service has a different legal basis, explained in the Spain contractor guide.

Complete registration before work starts and keep wage, overtime and daily records current. For any breach, identify the applicable provision before budgeting a penalty; the unquantified rows in the table do not establish a general amount.

Hiring in Spain: common questions

Can a US company hire directly in Spain without a subsidiary?

Yes. A foreign company with no Spanish work centre can register as an employer without incorporating a Spanish subsidiary, using its corporate documents and a legal representative domiciled in Spain. That makes the foreign company the employer, so it must complete the applicable registration, payroll and employment obligations for the hire.

What is the minimum wage in Barcelona?

Spain’s national statutory minimum also applies in Barcelona. From 1 January 2026, Spain’s full-time SMI is €1,221 a month on 14 payments and €17,094 gross a year; the applicable collective agreement can set a higher relevant minimum. A 12-cash-payment presentation is possible only where the applicable agreement permits prorating the extra payments.

Is €3,000 a good salary in Spain?

That depends on whether €3,000 means annual, monthly, gross or net pay, the payment schedule, the role and the applicable agreement. For national context only, INE’s 2025 Annual Labour Cost Survey reports €28,410.78 gross annual salary per worker for its defined General Regime and Sea Regime population; it is not a Barcelona or Madrid salary benchmark. For the proposed role, compare annual gross with the applicable agreement; net pay depends on the worker’s tax position.

Does Spain have a 40-hour work week?

The statutory ordinary maximum is 40 effective hours a week averaged over the year. The applicable collective agreement or contract sets the actual schedule and can set shorter hours, while the employer must keep daily start and finish records for four years.

Who pays sick pay in Spain?

For ordinary illness or a nonwork accident, the statutory benefit is 60% of the regulatory base on days 4–20 and 75% from day 21. The employer bears the ordinary-sickness benefit from days 4–15; from day 16, the INSS or the mutual insurer bears it. Any agreement top-up is separate from that statutory allocation.

Do I have to pay 14 salaries?

The annual offer is the decision point: the 2026 SMI floor is €17,094, and the statutory monthly SMI is expressed over 14 payments. If the applicable agreement allows the two extra payments to be prorated, the same annual SMI floor can be shown as €1,424.50 across 12 cash payments. Monthly contribution bases still include the proportional share of extraordinary pay, so a 12-payment presentation does not create a second annual salary.

How much does a €100,000 offer cost an employer?

For an illustrative 2026 scenario, a €100,000 annual offer has €1,674.47 monthly employer contributions, a 20.09% effective share, and an annual employer cost of €120,093.64. It assumes an indefinite ordinary General Regime employee doing qualifying exclusive-office work, 12 equal contribution bases, no incentives or overtime, and no provider charge or discretionary benefits. The offer is hypothetical rather than a salary survey observation, and different tariffs, contract types or registration positions require a separate calculation.

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