Base salary and supplements in Spain: what each part of your pay means
Your gross salary is made up of several parts. Knowing them helps you check your payslip, negotiate better and know what counts towards severance pay or unemployment benefit.
Base salary
It is the fixed amount paid per unit of time (month, day or hour) according to your professional category. It is set by the collective agreement and can never be lower than the minimum wage.
Salary supplements
- Personal: seniority, languages, qualifications.
- Job-related: night work, shift work, hazard pay.
- Based on quantity or quality of work: incentives, targets, commissions, productivity bonuses.
- Paid less often than monthly: extra payments, profit sharing.
All of them are subject to Social Security and IRPF and count towards calculating severance pay.
Non-salary items
They are not salary because they compensate for work-related expenses: travel allowances, mileage or transport supplements. Within certain limits they are neither subject to contributions nor taxed.