Employer of Record Spain
Employ people in Spain without opening a local company. As your Employer of Record, we take on the contracts, payroll, tax, and social security, so your hire is compliant from day one.
Book a DemoOur EOR Portal
Our platform: built for fast, compliant hiring in Spain
Behind the personal service sits a straightforward platform. It keeps new hires, payslips, and everyday admin in one place, so nothing slips through the cracks.
- Track onboarding progress and documents in one place
- Run payroll and view payslips
- Handle time off, salary changes, and contract updates
- Keep everything aligned with Spanish payroll and employment requirements
Why EOR Spain?
Why companies choose us to hire in Spain
Our focus is Spain, and only Spain. As your Employer of Record here, you get a partner who understands Spanish payroll, the Seguridad Social, and what it takes to hire locally. One person in Madrid or a full team across the country, we have done both.
We become the legal employer, run the payroll, and stay on top of compliance. The team knows what good looks like in Spain, from the first day of paperwork through to handling leavers.
Employment Costs
What it costs to employ someone in Spain
We often get asked “what’s the real cost of employing someone in Spain?”
Employer social security
As an employer in Spain, you pay social security on top of the salary. For an employee on an open-ended contract, the employer rate is around 30% (common contingencies, unemployment, FOGASA, training, and the MEI). Contributions are only charged up to a maximum base of €5,101.20 per month, so higher salaries are effectively capped. This is a direct cost to the business.
Employee deductions
Two things come off each payslip before the employee sees their net pay:
- Income tax (IRPF) is deducted on a progressive scale. In 2026 the combined state and regional rates run from about 19% at the bottom to roughly 47% at the top, depending on earnings, region, and personal circumstances.
- Employee social security is around 6.5% of gross salary (common contingencies, unemployment, training, and the MEI), charged up to the same maximum contribution base.
Worked example
Hiring someone on a salary of €70,000
Your total cost
≈ €89,700
Salary plus around 30% employer social security, capped at the maximum base
Employee take-home
≈ €46,000
After income tax (IRPF) and employee social security, for someone in Madrid
The exact take-home depends on the employee’s personal circumstances, family situation, and which region they live in.
We work this out each month, pay the social security to the Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social, file the income tax with the Agencia Tributaria, and issue the payslip. You see one invoice from us covering the salary, the statutory contributions, and our management fee.
The EOR Process in Spain
What’s involved when you employ someone in Spain
When you hire an employee in Spain, a few steps have to happen before they start, and some carry on while they work for you.
Under Spanish law, the employee has to be registered with the Seguridad Social before their first day. The written contract has to be filed with the SEPE, the public employment service, within 10 days of starting. It sets out pay, hours, holidays, and notice.
We issue the contract within a few hours of getting your details. It is drawn up under Spanish employment law and the collective agreement (convenio colectivo) that applies to the role.
Next, we register the employee with the Seguridad Social and set up payroll. Each month we work out and deduct income tax (IRPF) and the employee’s social security, pay the employer contributions, and file with the Agencia Tributaria and the Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social.
If the person you’re hiring is from outside the EU and needs the right to work in Spain, we can sponsor the work and residence permit as the legal employer. You do not need your own Spanish entity to do it.
Not every EOR offers this. It means you can hire from outside the EU without setting up a company here.
We employ people in Spain across a range of sectors, from software and engineering to retail and not-for-profit. The process is the same whatever the industry, though the contract terms and benefits tend to differ, often shaped by the relevant collective agreement.
Flexible Employment Contracts
Onboard in as little as 24 hours
When you need someone in a seat quickly, process is what makes the difference. Give us the key details and we move fast, without cutting corners on paperwork or compliance.
A simple easy portal
Manage your Spain hires, documents, and payroll tasks in one place.
Stress-free onboarding
We handle the Spanish employment paperwork and onboarding steps so you can focus on the role.
Accurate Spanish payroll
Payroll run correctly and on time, with the right IRPF and social security deductions and filings.
Predictable pricing
Hire in Spain without entity setup costs and ongoing admin overhead.
No local entity required
We act as the legal employer in Spain while you manage the day-to-day work.
Compliance covered
Contracts, statutory leave, payroll obligations, and day-to-day HR support handled locally.
One Dedicated Point of Contact
Strong working relationships come from consistent, responsive service
Good service starts with knowing your business. You get one dedicated Spain specialist across onboarding, payroll, and the everyday HR questions, which means quicker answers and fewer handoffs.
Get in touchEOR vs. your own entity
Do you need your own Spanish company, or can you use an EOR?
To employ someone in Spain, you have two options. You can set up your own Spanish entity, usually a sociedad limitada (SL) or a branch.
Setting up your own Spanish company
You’ll need a tax number (NIE) for the directors, reserve the company name, sign the deed of incorporation before a notary, and register with the Registro Mercantil. Then register with the Agencia Tributaria for corporate tax and VAT (IVA), and open a business bank account to deposit the share capital.
You also register as an employer with the Seguridad Social and appoint a gestoría to run payroll and filings. From start to finish it usually takes a couple of months, with the notary and bank account often the slowest parts.
- Annual accounts filed with the Registro Mercantil
- Corporate tax and VAT returns to the Agencia Tributaria
- Running payroll and Spanish employment law compliance
- A gestoría or accountant needed
- Ongoing compliance costs of a few thousand a year
Using an employer of record
We employ the person through our own Spanish entity. No company to set up, no notary or Registro Mercantil filing, no bank account to open, and no annual accounts to manage. We issue the employment contract and register the employee with the Seguridad Social. We run payroll and handle ongoing HR and compliance.
- No Spanish entity required
- Contract issued within hours
- Payroll, tax, and compliance all handled
- No accountant or gestoría needed on your side
- Single monthly invoice covers everything
When does each option make sense?
Use an EOR when…
You’re hiring a few people in Spain. You don’t want the cost of running a local company for just a handful of employees. It also works well when you need someone to start quickly and can’t wait a couple of months for an entity to be ready.
Set up your own entity when…
You’re hiring a larger permanent team in Spain. You may also need a Spanish company for commercial reasons, such as holding contracts with Spanish customers or applying for local grants and incentives.
No magic number marks the point where one tips over into the other. It depends on your plans for Spain. We’re happy to talk it through with you either way.
Employee Entitlements
What your employees in Spain are entitled to
Spain has strong employee protections, and getting them wrong can lead to claims at the labour courts or penalties from the Inspección de Trabajo. Here is what you need to know.
Annual leave
Every employee is entitled to a minimum of 30 calendar days of paid holiday a year, which works out at about 22 working days. It is set by the Estatuto de los Trabajadores, and the collective agreement for the role can improve on it. Leave builds up from day one and cannot be paid off in lieu while the person is still employed.
Public holidays
Spain has up to 14 public holidays a year. These combine national, regional, and local days, so the exact dates depend on where the employee works.
Sick leave
There is no fixed number of statutory sick days in Spain. For a common illness the first three days are usually unpaid unless the collective agreement says otherwise. From day 4 to day 15 the employer pays 60% of the regulated base, from day 16 Social Security takes over at 60%, and from day 21 it rises to 75%. A medical certificate is needed from the start.
Birth and childcare leave
Since July 2025, each parent gets 19 weeks of paid birth and childcare leave, all paid at 100% of the contribution base by Social Security. Six weeks are taken full-time straight after the birth, and the rest can be spread across the child’s first year, with two weeks available until the child turns eight. Both parents get the same.
Parental leave
On top of that, each parent has the right to up to eight weeks of parental leave to care for a child up to the age of eight. It can be taken in one block or spread out.
Family care leave
Employees also get five paid days a year for a hospital stay, serious illness, accident, or death of a close relative or the person they live with. Second-degree relatives are covered for two days, or four if travel is needed.
We handle all of this for you
We track every employee’s leave balances, make sure payslips reflect the right entitlements, and flag anything coming up. When someone takes birth leave, we sort out the paperwork and keep you compliant with the notice periods and return-to-work rules. You don’t need to learn Spanish employment law to employ people here.
Our Services
What we actually do
With our Employer of Record Spain service, hiring here no longer means opening a company first. We already hold the Spanish entity and put your team on our payroll, so you skip that step.
Learn more ›Employ people without a local company
If you want to hire in Spain without setting up a company, we can employ your team member locally and manage the full employment lifecycle.
Payroll and tax in Spain
We run compliant Spanish payroll, handle IRPF and social security deductions, and keep reporting and documentation consistent month to month.
HR and employment compliance
Practical HR guidance grounded in Spanish employment law and the applicable collective agreement, from onboarding through to changes and offboarding.
Employee benefits in Spain
Set up competitive benefits that fit the Spanish market, from private health insurance to meal vouchers and pension arrangements.
Employing in Spain
I want to learn more aboutonboarding|in Spain
Hiring in Spain is a lot easier with local HR support on hand. As your Employer of Record in Spain, you get straight answers on employment rights, leave, benefits, and paperwork from people who deal with Spanish employment every working day.
Spain Employment Guide ›About Us
What makes us different?
We set out to make hiring in Spain less of a headache for international teams. As an Employer of Record that owns its Spanish entity, we cut out the middleman, so you deal directly with the people running your payroll and keeping you compliant.
Book a DemoFAQ’s
No. That is the point of using an Employer of Record. We employ the person through our own Spanish entity, so you do not need to register a company, open a Spanish bank account, or deal with notary and Registro Mercantil filings.
Often within 24 to 48 hours once we have the key details. We register the employee with the Seguridad Social before their first day and set up the contract and payroll. The exact timing depends on how quickly we get the information we need from you and the employee.
An Employer of Record employs the person you have chosen directly, on a standard Spanish contract, and they work only for you. A temp agency (empresa de trabajo temporal, or ETT) hires out its own workers for short assignments and needs a special licence. We operate as an EOR, so your hire is on a normal contract, not agency work.
We agree a fixed monthly fee per employee upfront. It covers the employment administration, payroll, tax and social security filings, and ongoing HR support. We do not charge a percentage of salary, and there are no hidden fees. Get in touch for a quote based on what you need.
Yes. We are part of Agility EOR, so we can support hiring across multiple countries through one relationship. If your plans go beyond Spain, into the rest of Europe or further afield, we can handle that without you finding a separate provider for each country.
Ready to hire in Spain?
Want to bring someone on in Spain? As your EOR Spain team, we get them employed and onto our payroll without you opening a local company.
We take care of the contracts, payroll, and compliance. You focus on the person you are hiring.
Speak to an expert
Get in touch
Start employing in Spain today
Schedule a consultation today to find out more about how we can help you hire in Spain.