Understanding Your Nómina: The Spanish Payslip Explained

The first Spanish payslip leaves almost every newcomer frowning: pagas extras, contingencias comunes, a convenio you have never heard of, and at the bottom a net figure that looks nothing like what you expected. You do not need a tax adviser to understand your nómina, but you do need a few basic terms. This post walks through the payslip from top to bottom, using the figures that apply from 2026. Along the way, the nómina is also your proof that your employer has registered you correctly with social security in Spain, which is the basis for your pension, healthcare and unemployment benefit.

How a nómina is structured

The nómina is the monthly payslip in Spain. It lists gross pay (devengos), deductions (deducciones) and the amount paid out, and at the same time serves as proof of the social security contributions paid and the income tax (IRPF) withheld.

The header shows your employer's details and your own: name, DNI or NIE, social security number, start date (antigüedad), your occupational group (grupo de cotización, a scale from 1 for senior management to 11 for unskilled workers) and the applicable collective agreement, the convenio colectivo. This header looks unremarkable, but it determines almost everything below it. The convenio sets the minimum salary, the supplements and the number of extra payments; the contribution group sets the minimum contribution base.

On Mallorca, many foreign residents work in hotels and restaurants and therefore fall under the Balearic hostelería convenio. Whichever agreement applies to you has to be stated on the nómina or in your employment contract. If it names a convenio from an unrelated sector, or none at all, treat that as a warning sign.

Devengos: base salary, supplements and pagas extras

The upper block starts with the salario base, the basic salary under the convenio. Below it come the complementos: supplements for night work, languages, responsibility, travel costs or whatever else the collective agreement provides for. Some of these items count toward the contribution base, others (certain expenses, for instance) do not.

Then comes the item that confuses foreign employees most: the pagas extraordinarias. The Spanish Workers' Statute guarantees at least two extra payments a year, usually one in summer and one at Christmas. That is why Spaniards talk about 14 salaries. Many companies, however, do not pay the extras as separate payments but spread them across the year and include a share every month (prorrata de pagas extras). Whether that is allowed depends on the convenio. On the nómina you can spot this variant by a separate line "Prorrata pagas extras" in the devengos block. Both models add up to the same money over the year, only the monthly amount differs.

Deducciones: social security contributions and IRPF withholding

Now to the lower block, the deductions. As an employee in 2026 you pay the following social security contributions, set out in the contributions order Orden PJC/297/2026:

• Contingencias comunes (general risks such as illness and retirement): 4.70 percent
• Desempleo (unemployment insurance): 1.55 percent on a permanent contract, 1.60 percent on a temporary one
• Formación profesional (vocational training): 0.10 percent
• MEI (Mecanismo de Equidad Intergeneracional, a pension top-up): 0.15 percent

Together that is 6.50 percent of your contribution base, the base de cotización. This base is not simply your gross monthly pay: the pagas extras are included on a pro-rata basis even if they are only paid out in July or December. The base is capped at the top. Since 1 January 2026 the maximum contribution base is 5,101.20 EUR per month; anything above that is contribution-free. The much larger share of contributions does not appear on your nómina at all: the employer's part is around 30 percent on top of your gross salary.

The second big deduction is the retención IRPF, the withholding for Spanish income tax. The percentage depends on your annual salary, contract type and family situation, and your employer calculates it using the tables from the Agencia Tributaria. Important to keep in mind: this is not a final tax but a prepayment. The actual settlement happens once a year with the Declaración de la Renta. How that works for employees is covered in the post on the tax return as an employee in Spain.

How much is deducted from gross pay in Spain?

In 2026 you pay 6.50 percent of your contribution base to the Seguridad Social as an employee. On top of that comes the IRPF withholding, which depends on your salary and family situation. For low salaries it can be zero; for higher ones it can easily reach double digits.

Checking your nómina: convenio, contribution group and typical mistakes

My advice from experience: take half an hour with your first payslip and compare three things. Does the convenio match what you actually do? Does the grupo de cotización fit your position? And is the salario base at least the agreed rate for your category? The pay tables of the Balearic convenios are public, and your gestoría or a trade union can help you look them up.

Whether your employer actually pays the contributions is something you cannot see on the nómina. You see it in the informe de vida laboral, which you can download free of charge from the Seguridad Social. Request it once a year and compare it with your payslips. It takes ten minutes and uncovers most problems.

If you find a mistake, talk to the HR department or the company's gestoría first; it is often a simple clerical error. If it is not corrected, you can claim outstanding pay, but wage claims in Spain expire after one year. So keep every nómina, digital copies are fine. For everything else that applies to you under employment law, from notice periods to severance pay, see the overview Working as an employee on Mallorca.

Conclusion

After a short adjustment period, a nómina is easier to read than many payslips back home: gross pay with supplements and pagas extras at the top, 6.50 percent social security plus IRPF withholding at the bottom, and the contribution base in between as the basis for the calculation. What matters is a close look at the convenio and the contribution group, because that is where the expensive mistakes happen. Once you have checked your first payslip thoroughly and made the vida laboral comparison a yearly routine, the topic will hardly need your attention again.