Employment law in Spain—including minimum wage—may be quite different from your home country. In this post, we’ll answer the question, “what is the minimum wage in Spain?” in general terms. However, to make sure your business is compliant and avoid heavy fines, it would be wise to have a lawyer specialized in Spanish employment law on your side.
Minimum wage in Spain
Minimum wage or “salario mínimo” in Spain is laid out in a law called a Royal Decree each year according to the length or type of work contract. There is an annual minimum wage, a monthly minimum wage, and a daily minimum wage set out to ensure protections for workers who aren’t earning a set salary on a monthly or annual basis. In 2018, the minimum wages established by law are the following:
- Annual minimum: €10,304.00
- Monthly minimum: €858.55
- Daily minimum: €24.53
Most people living and working in Spain will reference their monthly income when discussing how much money they make. There is one additional complication regarding the monthly minimum wage, and that is that some employers pay out two extra monthly salaries per year, one extra in June and the other in December, as if there were 14 months in the year. They both amount to the same yearly amount; it’s just a matter of receiving 12 larger payments of €858.55, or 14 smaller payments of €736.00.
For part-time workers, all of these amounts are proportionally reduced.
What is the minimum wage in Spain per hour?
Determining the minimum wage in Spain per hour is not as cut-and-dry as it might seem, because there are a few different minimum wage schemes used in this country depending on the type of work contract you have. The simplest calculation that would apply to a majority of workers would take the annual minimum salary and break that down into a per hour rate, assuming a standard 40-hour work week. That comes out to be about €4.95, but only if you don’t take into account the public holidays and paid vacation that Spanish workers are entitled to by law (i.e. €4.95 per hour x 40 hours per week x 52 weeks per year = the annual minimum wage of €10,304).
However, there are also daily minimum wages and monthly minimum wages for other types of contracts. For people employed as domestic workers in someone’s home, the minimum wage in Spain per hour comes out to around €5.76 per hour, assuming their duties aren’t fixed to a monthly or yearly wage.
Employment law in Spain
Employment law in Spain covers more than just minimum wage. For example, there are numerous requirements for worker rest time (between shifts and consecutive rest days per week), paid vacation, maternity and paternity leave, etc. If you employ minors under age 18, you will also need to know all the restrictions placed on their work hours. As an employer, you should also know that you are responsible for taking out the necessary deductions for social security and Spanish income tax before paying your employees.