How to Hire Employees in Spain: Costs, Contracts and EOR Options
What a hire in Spain costs once two extra salary payments and a 32.15% employer contribution are counted, which collective agreement sets the pay, how dismissal pay is calculated, and how an EOR compares with your own entity.
By Spain hires on permanent contracts, under a sector agreement
Foreign companies hire in Spain through a Spanish subsidiary (usually a Sociedad Limitada), an employer of record, or self-employed contractors (autónomos). Since the 2021 labour reform the open-ended contract is the default, and the Labour Inspectorate pursues full-time autónomos who work like staff. For a first team of under ten people, an EOR is the sensible route: the SL, payroll registrations and collective agreement compliance take months to set up for one or two salaries.
Three things drive cost. Employer social security is 32.15% of the contribution base for an office role, capped at €5,101.20 a month in 2026. The base includes the two extra payments (pagas extra) that almost every collective agreement (convenio colectivo) requires, so a salary quoted as 14 monthly payments costs about 54% more than one month’s pay. The convenio then sets minimum pay by job group, often above the €1,221 national floor.
Employment terms and working conditions
The six rules below either changed in 2025 or 2026 or are the ones the Labour Inspectorate (Inspección de Trabajo) most often fines foreign employers for, starting with fixed-term contracts and missing time records.
Cost of employing someone in Spain
The percentage holds at 54.2% until the contribution base reaches €5,101.20 a month (about €4,373 on a 14-payment salary), then falls as pay rises.
€25,200 a year over 14 payments, about 1.5 times the minimum wage. Contributions are 32.15% of a monthly base of €2,100, because the base spreads both extra payments across 12 months. Check the convenio table first: it may require more for the job group.
€35,000 a year. The base is €2,916.67, well under the €5,101.20 cap, so every contribution applies in full. On monthly gross, social security is 37.5% because the base carries the extra payments; the extra payments themselves add 16.7%.
€91,000 a year. Pay above €5,101.20 a month (base) escapes ordinary contributions, so the rate falls. Since 2025 the excess pays a solidarity contribution instead: here €25 a month for the employer, included in the first line, and rising each year to 2045.
Employer rates for 2026 from the Seguridad Social Régimen General table and Orden PJC/297/2026 (BOE 31 March 2026, effective 1 January 2026): common contingencies 23.60%, Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI) 0.75%, unemployment 5.50% on open-ended contracts (6.70% fixed-term), wage guarantee fund (FOGASA) 0.20%, vocational training 0.60%. Work accident and occupational disease (AT/EP) 1.50% is the 2026 tariff for staff doing only office work in any activity (table II, letter a) and for IT and consultancy activities (CNAE 62), under Royal Decree-law 3/2026 (BOE 4 February 2026, applied from 1 January 2026); other activities and roles pay different rates. Monthly contribution base is the monthly salary x 14 / 12, capped at €5,101.20 (minimum €1,424.40 for most office groups, €1,989.30 for graduate group 1). Solidarity contribution (LGSS art. 19 bis) on pay above the cap: employer 0.96% to €5,611.32, 1.04% to €7,651.80, 1.22% above. Extra payments: two a year under ET art. 31, shown as a monthly accrual of salary x 2 / 12. Fixed-term contracts under 30 days add €33.62 per cancellation. Salaries are illustrative; the applicable convenio may require higher pay or more payments. Compare with other countries on our employer payroll tax rates by country table and the 13th month pay by country tool.
Price your hire, line by line
Pick a country and a salary. Every statutory contribution, ceiling and accrual is applied separately, so the total is close to what a provider will actually invoice.Compare other countries
Costs most calculators leave out
Private health cover, equipment stipend, meal or transport allowance.
Typically $0 to $2,000 depending on provider and country.
Refundable, but it ties up cash. Most providers hold one to two months.
Example. Change any field to make it yours.
Total employer cost, per employee per month
Monthly breakdown
Upfront and one-time costs
EOR or your own entity
Statutory rates current as of . Exchange rates indicative as of . Contribution ceilings, regional variation, employee age and collective agreements all shift the real figure. Use this to build a budget, then validate against a written quote.
Four ways to hire in Spain
The choice decides who holds the Spanish employment contract, and under Workers’ Statute art. 43 a worker can be supplied to another company only through a licensed temporary work agency (ETT); any other arrangement is illegal cession of workers (cesión ilegal), so ask any EOR how its Spanish entity is structured. See our EOR vs entity setup data for the break-even point.
Misclassification risk. The Labour Inspectorate treats an autónomo as an employee (falso autónomo) when the work is dependent and done for the client’s account (ajenidad): set hours, your tools, one client, monthly fixed pay. The Inspectorate can register the worker with Social Security from the start date and claim up to four years of back contributions with surcharges, plus fines. The Riders Law (Ley 12/2021) adds a legal presumption of employment for delivery workers managed by an app. See misclassification penalties by country.
Statutory leave and benefits
Spain counts annual leave in calendar days and lets each region and town choose part of the holiday calendar, so the same team can have different days off in Madrid and Barcelona. Sick pay from day 4 to day 15 is the employer’s, and many convenios top it up to full salary.
Workers’ Statute (Estatuto de los Trabajadores) arts. 37 (holidays, personal leave, breastfeeding, reduced hours), 38 (annual leave) and 48 bis (parental leave); Royal Decree-law 9/2025 (birth leave, BOE 30 July 2025); General Social Security Law (LGSS) art. 171 on sick pay rates; National Court (Audiencia Nacional) judgment of 30 September 2025, case 128/2025, on unpaid parental leave. The 2026 national and regional holiday list is published in the BOE each October for the following year. Convenios often improve sick pay, personal leave and seniority bonuses.
Termination and offboarding
Spain has no at-will employment: every dismissal needs a written cause, and the cost turns on whether a labour court would uphold it, which is why most exits are settled at the 33-day unfair rate.
Workers’ Statute arts. 14 (probation), 49.1.c (end of fixed-term contracts: 12 days’ salary per year, and 15 days’ notice for contracts over one year), 51 (collective dismissal: 10 workers in firms under 100 staff, 10% in firms of 100 to 299, 30 in firms of 300 or more, within 90 days), 52 and 53 (objective dismissal), 54 and 55 (disciplinary dismissal, void dismissal), 56 (unfair dismissal) and Law 3/2012 transitional provision 11 (pre-2012 service). The employee has 20 working days to challenge a dismissal, starting with compulsory conciliation at the regional mediation service. Most settlements are agreed at conciliation at the 33-day rate, which is tax free up to the statutory amount. The final settlement (finiquito), including unused holiday and the accrued share of the extra payments, is paid on the last day; ET art. 49.2 requires a draft of it with the dismissal notice. Resigning employees owe the notice set by the convenio, commonly 15 days.
Work permits and foreign hires
EU citizens need no permit. Non-EU hires need a Spanish employer to sponsor them, which an EOR can be, but the digital nomad visa only covers people paid by a company outside Spain. Read more in can an EOR sponsor a work visa.
From decision to first payroll in 4 weeks
Through an EOR, an EU citizen can start in about 4 weeks; the step that most often slows things down is the convenio check, because pay and probation follow from it.
Pick the convenio
Name the job and its tasks, then have the EOR confirm which collective agreement applies, its job group, the minimum salary on its pay table, the number of extra payments and the probation limit.
Issue an indefinido
Send an offer and open-ended contract with gross annual pay, 12 or 14 payments, probation, workplace and remote-work terms. Remote work over 30% of hours needs a written remote-work agreement (Ley 10/2021).
Collect worker numbers
The employee supplies NIE or DNI, Social Security affiliation number, a Spanish IBAN and form 145 for income tax withholding. Non-EU hires start the permit process here instead.
Register before day one
The EOR registers the start (alta) with the Social Security treasury (TGSS) through the RED system before work begins, and files the contract with SEPE through Contrat@ within 10 days.
Run the first nómina
First payslip at month end with IRPF withholding. Contributions are settled through the monthly RED filing by the end of the following month, and IRPF through quarterly form 111.
Best EOR providers in Spain
Four providers we have reviewed that employ in Spain. Full scoring and the ranked list sit on the Spain EOR page.
Lowest list fee of the four. Uses a mix of its own entities and partners and does not publish which applies in Spain, so ask, along with the deposit.
Lists $599 a month, below Papaya’s €650, with payroll, contractor and immigration services on one platform. Useful if a Spanish hire may later need a Blue Card filed.
Publishes both prices: $459 on an annual contract, $499 month to month. Ask which convenio it will apply and how it handles the 14-payment schedule.
Payroll-first platform that suits companies already running payroll in several European countries. Confirm whether Spain runs through its own entity or a partner.
Some links are referral links. We may earn a fee if you sign up, at no cost to you. It never changes our rankings.
All guides for hiring in Spain
Hiring guides for other countries
Compare employer costs, dismissal rules and EOR options in 14 more countries. Each guide is checked against official sources.
FranceHiring guide, 41.5% employer cost
GermanyHiring guide, 22.5% employer cost
NetherlandsHiring guide, 27.4% employer cost
United KingdomHiring guide, 15.9% employer cost
AustraliaHiring guide, 20.3% employer cost
IndiaHiring guide, 5.7% employer cost
PhilippinesHiring guide, 17.1% employer cost
SingaporeHiring guide, 17.2% employer cost
TaiwanHiring guide, 17.1% employer cost
Questions employers ask about hiring in Spain
Spanish labour rules changed through decrees in 2025 and 2026 while several announced reforms stalled, so a lot of published guidance describes rules that never passed.
Is a Spanish salary paid 12 or 14 times a year?
Usually 14: twelve monthly payments plus two extra payments (pagas extra), one at Christmas and one normally in June or July, under Workers’ Statute art. 31. The convenio can let you spread them across 12 payments instead, which changes cash flow but not annual cost. Always quote and compare offers as gross annual pay. A €35,000 offer is €2,500 x 14 or about €2,917 x 12, and social security is charged on the same annual figure either way.
Has Spain moved to a 37.5-hour working week?
No. Congress rejected the bill on 10 September 2025, and the legal maximum is still 40 hours a week of effective work averaged over the year (ET art. 34). Some articles written in 2025 still describe the cut as law. Many collective agreements already set annual hours below the 40-hour equivalent, so the hours in the contract should come from the applicable convenio, not from the statute.
Is unfair dismissal pay still 45 days per year?
Only for service before 12 February 2012. For service since then it is 33 days’ salary per year, capped at 24 months’ pay, and someone hired today will only ever accrue the 33-day rate. The Supreme Court has held that judges cannot award more than the statutory amount, though the Labour Ministry wants case-by-case compensation. When we checked in October 2026 there was no bill, and with elections on 29 November none is likely soon.
Can I hire on a fixed-term contract to test someone?
No. Since the 2021 labour reform, fixed-term contracts are limited to production peaks (up to 6 months, 12 if the convenio allows) or covering an absent worker, and a contract that does not meet those conditions is treated as open-ended. Use the probation period instead: up to 6 months for graduates and 2 months for others under ET art. 14, or less if the convenio says so. Fixed-term contracts also cost 6.70% for unemployment instead of 5.50%.
Can a full-time contractor in Spain stay an autónomo?
Only if the work is genuinely independent. A self-employed person billing one client a fixed monthly amount, on set hours, with your tools, is a falso autónomo, and the Labour Inspectorate can backdate employment and claim up to four years of contributions with surcharges. An autónomo who earns 75% or more of income from you is a dependent contractor (TRADE) with extra rights. Read how to switch a contractor to an EOR employee.
Do remote employees in Spain need to clock in?
Yes. Since 12 May 2019, ET art. 34.9 requires a daily record of start and finish times for every employee, including remote and senior staff, kept for four years. Fines run from €751 to €7,500. A decree making the record digital and remotely accessible to inspectors has been promised since 2025; when we checked in October 2026 it had still not been approved, so the 2019 rule is what applies today.
Can someone on Spain’s digital nomad visa work through an EOR?
Not through a Spanish EOR. The international teleworker visa requires work for a company based outside Spain, and an EOR’s Spanish entity is a Spanish employer. The 2026 income test is €2,849 a month, twice the minimum wage. For an EOR employee from outside the EU, use the highly qualified professional or Blue Card routes, which need €41,356.36 a year. Compare schemes in our digital nomad visas by country data.
What will a Spanish hire cost more in 2027?
At least the MEI increase: the employer share rises from 0.75% to 0.83% on 1 January 2027, about €2.33 a month on a €2,500 salary. The 2027 contribution cap and minimum wage were not set when we checked in October 2026; unions are asking for a 7% minimum wage rise and the expert committee reports by early November. The solidarity contribution on pay above the cap also rises each January.
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