What an employee really costs in Spain in 2026: the €1,221 minimum wage, the employer's 30.65 % and two worked payrolls for Fuerteventura

Every job offer in Spain has a second number behind the one the candidate sees, and it is the one the employer needs before saying yes: what the person costs every month once Social Security, the accident premium, the holidays and the end of the contract are counted. This piece is the numbers for 2026 — the minimum wage of Real Decreto 126/2026, the contribution rates of Orden PJC/297/2026, the accident tariff, two worked payrolls and the hiring bonuses of Real Decreto-ley 1/2023 — written for a company hiring in Fuerteventura. Quotations are in Spanish with the reading in English. The paperwork of the first hire — the employer's registration, the contract, the alta, the time register, the prevention service — is our sister firm's piece on the employer's duties; this one only counts.

The minimum wage in 2026: €1,221 in fourteen payments

Real Decreto 126/2026 fixes the salario mínimo interprofesional for 2026 at 40,70 euros/día o 1 221 euros/mes — €40.70 a day or €1,221 a month — with effect from 1 January 2026 (final provision 3), and its article 3.1 gives the annual figure every comparison is made on: sin que en ningún caso pueda considerarse una cuantía anual inferior a 17 094 euros — in no case may an annual amount below €17,094 be considered. The monthly figure is one of fourteen payments. The Estatuto de los Trabajadores gives every employee dos gratificaciones extraordinarias al año — two extra payments a year (article 31), one at Christmas and one in the month the convenio fixes — and only a convenio can decide que las gratificaciones extraordinarias se prorrateen en las doce mensualidades — that the extras be spread over the twelve monthly payslips. Fourteen payments of €1,221 or twelve of €1,424.50: the year is €17,094 either way.

Two more lines of the decree matter to an employer. The minimum is cash: En el salario mínimo se computa únicamente la retribución en dinero — only money counts towards it — so accommodation or meals never reduce it, and article 26.1 of the Estatuto caps pay in kind at 30 % of the salary in any contract. And the minimum is for the full legal working week, forty hours of effective work on an annual average (article 34.1); a part-time contract pays the proportion.

The minimum wage is the floor, not the price. Almost every hire on the island falls under a provincial or sector convenio — hospitality, retail, offices, construction — whose pay tables set a minimum for each category, and in the categories a business actually needs those minimums sit above the state figure. Before we quote a cost we read the convenio; the SMI is where the reading starts.

The employer's contributions in 2026, line by line

Orden PJC/297/2026, published on 31 March with effect from 1 January 2026, is the year's contribution order; the differences for the months already settled at the old figures are paid without surcharge once the Tesorería recalculates them (transitional provision 1), which is why a payroll that jumped in the spring was catching up, not overcharging. Its article 4.a sets the main rate: for common contingencies, el 28,30 por ciento, del que el 23,60 por ciento será a cargo de la empresa y el 4,70 por ciento, a cargo de la persona trabajadora — 28.30 %, of which 23.60 % is borne by the company and 4.70 % by the worker. The other lines are smaller and add up.

The MEI is the line that grew: article 16 applies el tipo del 0,90 por ciento sobre la base de cotización por contingencias comunes, del que el 0,75 por ciento será a cargo del empleador y el 0,15 por ciento, a cargo de la persona trabajadora — 0.90 % of the common-contingencies base, 0.75 % on the employer and 0.15 % on the worker. Unemployment is the line that punishes the temporary contract: an indefinite hire pays 7,05 por ciento, del que el 5,5 por ciento será a cargo de la empresa y el 1,55 por ciento, a cargo de la persona trabajadora, a fixed-term one 8.30 %, del que el 6,70 por ciento será a cargo del empresario y el 1,60 por ciento, a cargo de la persona trabajadora — and since the 2021 reform every contract se presume concertado por tiempo indefinido — is presumed indefinite (Estatuto, article 15.1), so a temporary one needs a written cause. The training levy is el 0,70 por ciento, del que el 0,60 por ciento será a cargo de la empresa y el 0,10 por ciento, a cargo de la persona trabajadora, and FOGASA el 0,20 por ciento, a cargo de la empresa — 0.20 %, on the company alone.

The accident premium: your activity code decides it

The seventh line has no single rate. Article 4.b sends it to the tariff of premiums that the Ley General de la Seguridad Social now carries in its additional provision 61, added by Real Decreto-ley 3/2026 for 2026 onwards, siendo las primas resultantes a cargo exclusivo de la empresa — the resulting premiums being borne exclusively by the company. The tariff's table I lists every CNAE-2025 code with two components, temporary incapacity and death or permanent incapacity, and their sum is what the payroll applies; table II overrides it for a few occupations, so that Personal en trabajos exclusivos de oficina — staff in exclusively office work — pays 1.50 % whatever the company does. These are the codes we see most in Fuerteventura:

The code is the company's principal activity as declared to the Tesorería, and the tariff's second rule says so: the type is read from table I en razón de la actividad económica principal desarrollada por la empresa — according to the principal economic activity carried on by the company. A cleaning company hiring an office administrator uses letter a for that person and 3.60 % for the crews; a restaurant is 1.50 % all round; a builder pays 6.70 %, more than four times a consultancy. It is the first thing we check when a cost quote looks wrong.

Bases, floors and the ceiling

Contributions are not computed on the payslip's monthly figure but on the base: the whole monthly pay, in cash and in kind, plus the extra payments spread over the year — Las percepciones de vencimiento superior al mensual se prorratearán a lo largo de los doce meses del año — payments due less often than monthly are prorated over the twelve months of the year (LGSS, article 147.1). A minimum-wage employee on fourteen payments therefore contributes on €1,424.50 a month, not on €1,221.

The base has a floor and a ceiling (Order, articles 2 and 3). The floor depends on the contribution group of the job: €1,424.40 a month for groups 4 to 7 — clerks, assistants, unqualified staff — €1,435.20 for group 3, €1,649.70 for group 2 and €1,989.30 for group 1, the graduates and senior managers. That last figure is a trap for small companies: a graduate hired on a group-1 contract contributes on at least €1,989.30 whatever the pay agreed. Manual groups 8 to 11 contribute by the day, with a floor of €47.48. The ceiling is €5,101.20 a month for every group; above it the solidarity quota of article 17 applies to the excess pay — 1.15 % on the slice comprendida entre 5.101,21 euros y 5.611,32 euros, 1.25 % up to €7,651.80 and 1.46 % above, of which the company bears 0.96 %, 1.04 % and 1.22 % — a line that only touches salaries above roughly €61,000 a year.

Worked payroll 1: the minimum wage in an office

An administrative assistant, group 5 or 7, indefinite contract, office-only work, €1,221 in fourteen payments. Base: €1,424.50.

Twelve months of that are €5,495.76, and the year costs the company €22,589.76: €17,094 of salary plus 32.15 % on top. The employee gives up 6.50 % of the base, €92.59 a month, €1,111.08 a year, and keeps €15,982.92 before income tax — and in 2026 the income tax on that is designed to be nothing. The deduction that Real Decreto-ley 5/2026 wrote into additional provision 61 of the income-tax law is 590,89 euros anuales for employment income iguales o inferiores a 17.094 euros anuales — equal to or below €17,094 a year — tapering to zero at €20,048.45. Whether each payslip carries a withholding still depends on the withholding rules and the worker's personal situation, which is why the net figure on the offer letter should come from a payroll run, not from a percentage.

Worked payroll 2: €2,000 gross a month

The salary most candidates on the island name first. Take it as twelve payments of €2,000 with the extras prorated — €24,000 a year — for an indefinite contract in an office, a restaurant or a consultancy, all at 1.50 %.

That is €7,716 a year and a total cost of €31,716. The same person on a temporary contract costs €24 more a month for the unemployment line alone, plus the twelve days' severance at the end. The same salary in a shop or an estate agency costs €646 a month, in a transport company €679, in a cleaning company €685, on a building site €747. And if the candidate meant fourteen payments of €2,000 — €28,000 a year — the base becomes €2,333.33, the contributions €750.17 a month and the year €37,002.04. When someone says two thousand a month, the first question is twelve or fourteen.

The worker's side of the second payroll is €130 a month in contributions, €1,560 a year, before an income-tax withholding that depends on family situation and other income; we run it before the offer so that gross and net are both on the table.

The costs that are not on the payslip

• Thirty days of holiday. En ningún caso la duración será inferior a treinta días naturales — in no case shorter than thirty calendar days (Estatuto, article 38.1): paid, inside the salary already counted, but the month of cover in August is a cost the two tables do not show.
• The first fortnight of sick leave. For common illness the Social Security subsidy starts on the fourth day, and desde el día cuarto al decimoquinto de baja, ambos inclusive, el subsidio estará a cargo del empresario — from the fourth to the fifteenth day of leave, both included, the subsidy is on the employer (LGSS, article 173.1); its rate from day four to day twenty is un subsidio equivalente al sesenta por ciento de la base reguladora correspondiente — a subsidy equal to 60 % of the corresponding regulatory base, the percentage Real Decreto 53/1980 set. On the €2,000 payroll a twelve-day illness is about €480 of subsidy paid by the company, contributions continue meanwhile — La obligación de cotizar permanece durante las situaciones de incapacidad temporal (Order, article 6.1) — and many convenios oblige the employer to top the subsidy up to full pay. For a work accident the day of the accident is on the employer too, el salario íntegro correspondiente al día de la baja.
• Overtime. At most eighty hours a year (article 35.2), paid at no less than the ordinary hour or compensated with rest, and contributed on top: the pay for overtime carries an extra 23.60 % for the company (Order, article 5), 12 % when caused by force majeure.
• The end of the contract. A temporary contract ends with doce días de salario por cada año de servicio — twelve days' salary per year of service (article 49.1.c). An objective dismissal — economic, organisational, unsuitability — costs veinte días por año de servicio with un máximo de doce mensualidades — twenty days per year of service, capped at twelve months (article 53.1.b); a dismissal declared unfair, thirty-three days a year up to twenty-four months (article 56.1). On €24,000 a year that is €1,315 or €2,170 per year of service.
• Contracts under thirty days. una cotización adicional de 33,62 euros a cargo del empresario a la finalización del mismo — an additional contribution of €33.62 on the employer when the contract ends (Order, article 28.1), the formula of article 151 of the LGSS: three times the group-8 daily minimum quota. A week's cover for an event pays it; a substitution contract does not.
• Compliance. The prevention service, the daily time register, the payroll and the contract filings are the employer's duties, and their prices are market prices; the duties piece walks through them.

The bonuses that lower the bill

Real Decreto-ley 1/2023 gathered the hiring incentives into one text, in force since September 2023. They are fixed monthly amounts set against the employer's contributions — teniendo como límite, en cualquier caso, el 100 por cien del importe de dichas aportaciones — capped in any case at 100 % of those contributions (article 10) — applied automatically by the Tesorería from the data on the alta (article 36) when the company is current with tax and Social Security and not disqualified (article 8). Three conditions decide most cases. The worker must be kept in employment al menos tres años desde la fecha de inicio del contrato — at least three years from the start of the contract (article 9), with resignations, fair dismissals, the end of a probation period and objective dismissals not counted against the company. Only one bonus per hire (article 12). And article 11 excludes the hires people ask about most: el cónyuge, ascendientes, descendientes y demás parientes por consanguinidad o afinidad, hasta el segundo grado inclusive — the spouse, ascendants, descendants and other relatives by blood or marriage to the second degree — of the employer or of those who control or direct the company; anyone who worked for the same company on an indefinite contract in the previous twelve months, or on a temporary or training contract in the previous six; and anyone who left an indefinite job with another employer in the previous three months.

What the Canaries do not have is a territorial bonus: the 75 % cut in employer contributions of article 31 is for Ceuta and Melilla only. A restaurant in Corralejo pays the full 30.65 %; its lever is the person it hires, not the postcode. The long-term-unemployed bonus is the one that fits most island hires, and it is worth checking with the candidate before the contract is signed, because the registration months are counted on the day of the alta.

Hiring from Fuerteventura: what we do before the offer goes out

Our business advisory desk quotes the hire before the offer: the convenio table for the category, the accident code the company carries, the base and the seven lines, the bonus the candidate qualifies for, and the twelve-or-fourteen question settled in writing. Then the contract, the alta and the monthly payroll, with the withholding calculated on the worker's actual situation. If you are deciding whether to hire at all, autónomo or SL and how a director pays themselves are the two pieces that usually come first; our business advisory page explains how we work, and a consultation can be booked online.

Common questions

Is a Spanish salary quoted gross or net?

Gross, and usually annual. On €24,000 the employee gives up €1,560 a year in contributions before income tax, and the company adds €7,716 on top: the same offer is €31,716 to one side and €22,440 to the other before withholding. Both figures belong on the table before anyone signs.

Can I pay the minimum wage in twelve payments instead of fourteen?

Only if the convenio that applies allows the extras to be prorated; article 31 of the Estatuto leaves that to collective bargaining. Either way the year cannot fall below €17,094 and the contribution base is the same €1,424.50 a month.

Does a part-time employee cost proportionally less?

Yes: a part-time contract contributes on the pay actually earned for the hours worked, with hourly minimum bases instead of monthly ones and a floor of €8.58 per hour worked for the accident and unemployment base (Order, articles 38 and 39). The fixed costs do not scale — the prevention service, the time register and, if the contract is under thirty days, the €33.62 surcharge — so a very short part-time contract is expensive per hour worked.

What happens if I let a bonused worker go before three years?

The bonus is lost and the amounts already applied are refunded with the surcharge and interest of the Social Security collection rules (articles 9.3 and 13). The exceptions are the ones article 9.2 lists — resignation, a fair disciplinary dismissal, an objective dismissal not declared unfair, the end of the probation period, retirement, death or permanent incapacity — so an ordinary, well-founded termination does not trigger the refund.

Facts verified in September 2026 (Real Decreto 126/2026, articles 1 to 4 and final provision 3; Orden PJC/297/2026, articles 2 to 6, 16, 17, 28 and 33; Ley General de la Seguridad Social, articles 147, 151 and 173 and additional provision 61 as added by Real Decreto-ley 3/2026; Estatuto de los Trabajadores, articles 15, 26, 31, 34, 35, 38, 49, 53 and 56; Real Decreto-ley 1/2023, articles 8 to 13, 16 to 25, 31 and 36; Ley 43/2006, article 2.2; Ley 35/2006, additional provision 61 as worded by Real Decreto-ley 5/2026; Real Decreto 53/1980; all in the BOE's texts). The convenio table and the company's accident code are checked hire by hire the week we quote.