How to read a Spanish payslip (nómina), line by line

The nómina is the individual receipt for your salary payment, and your employer has to give you one (Article 29.1 of the Estatuto de los Trabajadores). It must follow the official template — set by an order of 1994 and redrawn by Order ESS/2098/2014 — or a template agreed in a collective agreement that separates earnings and deductions just as clearly. Since 2014 the payslip also shows what your employer pays in social security on your behalf.

This guide works through the template from top to bottom. What 12 versus 14 payments means, and how much of your gross pay you keep, is covered in our guide to pay in Spain. Here the aim is to understand every line of the payslip itself.

The header: who pays whom, for which period

• Employer: name, address, tax ID (CIF) and social security contribution account (código de cuenta de cotización).
• You: name, NIF or NIE and social security number (número de afiliación).
• Job category or professional group (categoría o grupo profesional) and contribution group (grupo de cotización).
• Pay period (periodo de liquidación): start and end dates and the number of days.

Check the job category above all. It decides which row of your collective agreement's pay table applies to you. A lower category than the work you actually do means being underpaid every month.

I. Devengos: everything you have earned

The template has two blocks. Percepciones salariales are pay for your work; percepciones no salariales reimburse costs or come from other sources.

• Salary items: base salary (salario base), allowances (complementos salariales — your collective agreement says which), overtime, extra payments (gratificaciones extraordinarias) and pay in kind (salario en especie).
• Non-salary items: reimbursement of expenses you incurred for the employer (indemnizaciones o suplidos), social security benefits paid through the payslip, compensation for transfers, suspensions or dismissal, and other items.

Together they make the ‘total devengado’ (A). If you receive accommodation or meals as part of your pay, their value appears here as pay in kind — and is taken off again further down, because you do not receive it as cash.

II. Deducciones: what comes off

The first item is your share of social security and the contributions collected with it: general contingencies (contingencias comunes), unemployment (desempleo), vocational training (formación profesional) and, where relevant, overtime. On top comes the intergenerational equity mechanism (MEI). The 2026 rates are the same for every employee in the general scheme:

The second item is IRPF withholding, an advance on your income tax for the year. Your employer works out the percentage from your expected annual pay and the personal details you give it on form Modelo 145 — family situation, children, disability. If anything changes, tell them, or the rate will be wrong. For contracts shorter than a year the withholding is at least 2 % (Article 86.2 of the IRPF Regulation). The final reckoning comes with your annual tax return (declaración de la renta).

• Anticipos: advances you have already received this month.
• Valor de los productos recibidos en especie: the same amount that was added above as pay in kind.
• Otras deducciones: any other deduction, which must be itemised.

The sum is the ‘total a deducir’ (B). What reaches your account is the ‘líquido total a percibir’: A minus B.

The foot: contribution bases and the employer's share

• Base for contingencias comunes: the month's pay plus the pro-rated share of the extra payments (prorrata pagas extraordinarias), excluding overtime.
• Base for occupational accidents and illness (contingencias profesionales), also used for unemployment, vocational training and the wage guarantee fund FOGASA: the previous base plus overtime.
• Additional contribution on overtime, if you worked any.
• Base sujeta a retención del IRPF: the amount the withholding percentage is applied to this month.
• Aportación de la empresa: what the employer pays for you on those bases — considerably more than your own share.

When extra payments are spread (prorrateadas)

A collective agreement can provide for the two extra payments to be spread across the twelve months. Each payslip then shows a ‘prorrata pagas extra’ line under devengos, and there is no separate payment at Christmas or on the second date. If you see neither that line nor separate extra payments, ask: the right to both is set by law.

A monthly checklist

1. 01Does the job category match your work and your collective agreement's pay table?
2. 02Is every hour of overtime and every additional hour included?
3. 03Does the unemployment rate match your contract — 1.55 % if open-ended, 1.60 % if fixed-term?
4. 04Is the IRPF percentage plausible? Check it with the tax agency's withholding calculator.
5. 05Does the líquido match what arrived in your bank account?
6. 06Once a year: check your employment history report (vida laboral) to confirm you were registered for the whole period.

If your pay arrives late, the employer also owes you late-payment interest of 10 % of the amount due (Article 29.3). Keep every payslip: they are your evidence if you ever need to claim money you are owed.