Spanish Employment Contracts for Americans: Pay, Hours and Rights

A Spanish employment contract, the contrato de trabajo, is governed by the Workers’ Statute (Estatuto de los Trabajadores), whose consolidated text in the BOE, Spain’s official gazette, was last updated on December 4, 2025. For an American, a job offer from a Spanish company raises two questions: whether you may legally work, and what the contract guarantees. The answers differ from U.S. practice on pay, which can arrive in 14 installments, on the trial period, on fixed-term hiring and on dismissal, where the Statute sets severance. This article is for informational purposes only and is not immigration or legal advice; verify current requirements with the relevant Spanish authority or a licensed professional.

What in a Spanish job offer catches Americans out?

Five points differ from a U.S. offer, each set by law.

• The permit comes first. Under article 36 of Spain’s immigration law, Organic Law 4/2000, a foreigner over 16 needs a prior residence and work authorization for any paid activity. The employer applies for it with a contract guaranteeing continuous work, and it takes effect only when you are registered with Social Security.
• The salary figure. The Statute gives two extra payments a year, one at Christmas, and leaves their amount to the collective agreement (convenio colectivo, negotiated for a sector or a company), which can spread them over the 12 months. An annual salary can arrive in 14 payments or in 12: ask which.
• The trial period. It exists only if agreed in writing, lasts up to 6 months for a qualified technician (técnico titulado) unless the collective agreement sets other limits, and either side can end the relationship during it.
• Fixed-term offers. Article 15, rewritten by the 2021 labor reform and in force since March 30, 2022, allows only production circumstances and replacement. Article 8 still names contracts “for a specific work or service” (obra o servicio), but article 15 no longer offers that type: plan on the two current ones.
• No at-will dismissal. After the trial period, the Statute sets severance by type of dismissal: 20 days of salary per year of service for an objective dismissal, 33 for one a court rules unfair unless the employer takes you back.

The figures in a Spanish employment contract

The rules come from the Workers’ Statute, except the minimum wage, set by Royal Decree 126/2026.

The 2026 minimum wage runs from January 1 to December 31 in every sector; SEPE counts the 17,094 euros as 14 payments. Employers must also keep a daily record of your start and end times for 4 years; a draft decree on digital recording was not in the BOE on September 26, 2026.

Before your first day: permit, registration and paperwork

The work authorization

The Ministry of Inclusion’s Hoja 12, updated in May 2025, describes the initial authorization as one an employer requests to hire a foreign worker over 16 for more than 90 days and less than 5 years. After you enter Spain, you must be registered with Social Security within 3 months, then request the TIE, the foreigner identity card, in person within 1 month of that registration; see the TIE guide. The full route is in the Spain work visa guide, and the highly qualified professional permit is a separate route with its own salary bars.

Long-term residence, under article 32 of the immigration law and the ministry’s Hoja 49, lets you live and work in Spain indefinitely on the same terms as Spaniards after 5 years of continuous residence; see the long-term residence guide. Working for yourself follows other rules, in the autónomo guide.

Social Security registration

The employer must request your Social Security affiliation before the work starts, and in the General Regime (Régimen General) it files the registration (alta) no more than 60 calendar days before the planned start.

Written or oral

Article 8 of the Statute allows a contract in writing or by word of mouth. Writing is required for fixed-term contracts longer than 4 weeks and for part-time, fixed-discontinuous, relief, training and remote-work contracts. One that should have been written but was not is presumed open-ended and full-time unless proven otherwise, and either party can demand a written contract at any time. The employer reports every contract to the public employment office within 10 days.

Written information from October 5, 2026

Royal Decree 723/2026, published on September 15, 2026, takes effect on October 5, 2026. From then, for any relationship longer than 4 weeks, the employer must give you written information on the essential elements of the contract before the job starts: the base salary and each supplement listed separately, with how often and how each is paid, and the length and conditions of any trial period. It replaces Royal Decree 1659/1998. The salary items and the trial period may be given as a precise reference to the collective agreement rather than as figures.

Fixed-term contracts since the 2021 reform

• Production circumstances. 6 months at most, or 1 year under a sector-level collective agreement. For occasional, foreseeable short needs, a company can use these contracts for at most 90 days in the calendar year, and not in one continuous block.
• Replacement. The contract covers a worker who has the right to keep the job and names that person and the reason; when it fills a post during a hiring process, it lasts 3 months at most.

More than 18 months within any 24 months on two or more production-circumstances contracts makes you permanent. When a fixed-term contract ends, you are owed 12 days of salary per year of service, prorated; replacement and training contracts are excluded. For a fixed-term contract of 120 days or less, the 2026 minimum wage decree sets at least 57.82 euros per legal working day.

What comes off your gross pay

Social Security’s page on bases and rates lists the 2026 contributions set by Order PJC/297/2026 of March 30; most are split between the employer and you.

Adding up the published worker rates gives 6.50 percent of your contribution base on an open-ended, replacement or training contract and 6.55 percent on a production-circumstances one; that is our sum, not a figure the page prints. The same addition gives the employer 30.65 and 31.85 percent, plus the accident and illness premium from the premium tariff (tarifa de primas).

The monthly contribution base starts at 1,989.30 euros for group 1 (engineers and university graduates) and 1,424.40 euros for groups 4 to 7, and is capped at 5,101.20 euros for every group. Pay above the cap carries an extra solidarity contribution under article 19 bis of the General Social Security Law. For 2026 the Order sets it at 1.15 percent of monthly pay between 5,101.21 and 5,611.32 euros, 1.25 percent up to 7,651.80 euros and 1.46 percent above that, of which you pay 0.19, 0.21 and 0.24 percent and the employer the rest. Income tax is a separate question: the Beckham law guide covers the special regime for workers who move to Spain.

Leaving a job: resignation, dismissal and severance

Resigning. You give the notice set by your collective agreement or by local custom; the Statute fixes no number of days.

Objective dismissal. Article 52 lists the grounds, among them lack of aptitude, failure to adapt to reasonable technical changes, and economic, technical, organizational or production causes below the collective-dismissal thresholds. Article 53 requires written notice stating the cause, 20 days of salary per year of service, prorated by month and capped at 12 months of pay, and 15 days of notice, during which you get 6 paid hours a week to look for work.

Unfair dismissal. If a court rules a dismissal unfair (improcedente), the employer has 5 days from notification of the judgment to choose between reinstatement and 33 days of salary per year of service, prorated by month and capped at 24 months of pay; with no choice, reinstatement applies. Under article 59 of the Statute, a challenge to a dismissal must be filed within 20 business days, a clock that stops when you file a conciliation request: see a labor lawyer (abogado laboralista) as soon as the letter arrives.

Unemployment benefit when the job ends

The SEPE page on the contributory benefit says workers from outside the EU who reside legally in Spain and meet the requirements are entitled to it once registered as job seekers. Article 266 of the General Social Security Law adds registration with Social Security, legal unemployment, a signed activity agreement, being under the ordinary retirement age and at least 360 days of unemployment contributions in the previous 6 years.

The length follows article 269 of the same law:

1. 360 to 539 days of contributions give 120 days of benefit.
2. Each further band of 180 days adds 60 days: 540 to 719 give 180, and 720 to 899 give 240.
3. 2,160 days or more give the maximum, 720 days.

The benefit is 70 percent of your regulatory base, the average contribution base of the last 180 days without overtime, for the first 180 days, then 60 percent. SEPE’s 2026 limits are 560 euros a month at least without children and 749 euros with children, and at most 1,225 euros without children, 1,400 euros with one and 1,575 euros with two or more.

The Spanish SEPE page sets the claim within 15 business days (días hábiles) after the last day worked; the English version says fifteen days. The Spanish text is the reference, and filing within 15 calendar days meets both. The pages read for this guide do not say what happens to your residence authorization while you are unemployed: ask the immigration office before the contract ends.

Get the offer’s terms in writing before you accept

Before you accept, ask the employer in writing who files the work authorization, which collective agreement will cover you, and how the salary splits into base pay, supplements and extra payments. From October 5, 2026, the employer owes you the salary breakdown and the trial period in writing before your first day, possibly as a reference to the collective agreement.

A long-term resident signing a standard open-ended contract can check it against the table above alone. Get a labor lawyer when the job depends on sponsorship, when you are offered a chain of fixed-term contracts, or when a dismissal letter arrives.

The Spain Navigator puts every step of your move to Spain in order, from the visa to settling in.