Spain does not make you queue for a work permit if you are European. You can start work the day you arrive. The difficulty lies elsewhere: finding the right job, reading a contract that follows rules you may not know, and understanding why your monthly pay looks lower than the annual salary divided by twelve. Working in Spain is easy to enter and full of details.
Can you start working in Spain without a permit?
As a citizen of an EU or EEA country, or Switzerland, yes. You have free access to employment on the same terms as a Spaniard, and your employer registers you with social security before your first working day. You will need your NIE (how to get it) and a Spanish bank account to be paid (opening a bank account in Spain). If you stay more than three months, you also register as a resident (residence certificate).
British citizens are in a different position since Brexit: they need a work authorisation or a residence permit that allows work, except for rights acquired before 2021. See moving to Spain from the UK.
Where do you look for jobs in Spain for foreigners?
Three official channels: the employment service of your autonomous community, where you register as a job-seeker; the national public employment service, the SEPE; and EURES, the European portal that lists jobs across the EU.
If your profession is regulated in Spain (teacher, health professional, architect and others), you need your qualification recognised first, by the competent ministry: Universities for teachers, Health for health professions. For a non-regulated profession, the employer judges your diploma. Under the EU directive, the administration must ask for any missing papers within a month and decide within three months, or four in the general system. Degrees obtained outside the EU need a formal equivalence process that takes up to six months.
What should your Spanish employment contract say?
Since the 2021 labour reform, an employment contract is presumed to be permanent. A fixed-term contract is allowed only for a genuine increase in activity (six months at most, or a year if the collective agreement allows, or 90 days a year for foreseeable peaks) or to replace an absent employee (article 15 of the Workers' Statute). A temporary contract outside those cases can be requalified as permanent.
Check these points:
- The trial period must be in writing. Without a collective agreement, six months for graduate technicians, two months for other employees, three months in firms of fewer than 25 employees, and one month for a fixed-term contract of six months or less. It is void if you have already held the same job in the company.
- The collective agreement (convenio colectivo) is the document that often fixes your real pay, bonuses, hours and the length of the trial. Ask which one applies to you.
- The pay structure. Many contracts have 14 payments a year, with two "extra" ones, one at Christmas. The agreement can instead spread them over twelve months.
How much is the minimum wage for working in Spain, and how many hours do you work?
The minimum wage for 2026 is €1,221 gross a month in 14 payments, or €40.70 a day, which makes €17,094 a year (Royal Decree 126/2026). Domestic workers paid by the hour get at least €9.55, and seasonal workers on contracts of 120 days or less with the same company at least €57.82 a day.
Working time is capped at 40 hours a week on average over the year, in principle 9 hours a day at most, with 12 hours of rest between two working days and a break of at least 15 minutes if the day goes beyond six hours. You may read about a 37.5-hour week: it was not in force in the consolidated text of the Workers' Statute updated on 3 October 2026, which still says 40.
Paid leave is at least 30 calendar days a year. There are up to 14 public holidays, including two local ones; the exact list depends on your region and town. See daily life in Spain for the calendar logic.
What do you need on your first day at work?
Before you start, your employer must register you with the Seguridad Social, and you need a social security number. In most cases the employer asks for it for you. If the employer has not done so, or if you are self-employed, you can request it yourself with form TA.1 at the office of the national treasury of social security (TGSS) in your province, or online with an electronic certificate. That number becomes your affiliation number for life.
Bring your passport or ID card, your NIE, a bank account for the salary and, for a regulated profession, your diploma and the recognition decision. Read the contract in full before signing: ask for a copy, and for the collective agreement if you cannot find it.
How is working in Spain different from the system at home?
Three habits can surprise newcomers. First, the extra payments: two of the 14 monthly instalments are bigger, usually in summer and at Christmas, unless they are prorated. Second, the importance of the collective agreement for a sector, which can raise pay and conditions above the legal minimums. Third, the summer timetable: many companies and administrations run a continuous working day in July and August, although this is a matter of company practice and collective agreements, not a general legal rule. Many Spaniards take their holidays in August, which slows down administrative procedures.
Leave comes in more forms than the 30 days: for example, 15 calendar days after a marriage or a registered partnership.
What happens if the job ends?
- Fixed-term contract: compensation of 12 days of salary per year worked, except for training and replacement contracts.
- Dismissal judged unjustified: 33 days of salary per year of service, up to 24 months (article 56).
- Unemployment benefit: paid by the SEPE. You must have contributed for at least 360 days in the last six years. The duration runs from 120 days (360 to 539 days contributed) to 720 days (2,160 days or more). The benefit equals 70% of your reference pay for the first 180 days, then 60%, within a floor and a ceiling tied to the public indicator IPREM. In 2026, with an IPREM of €600 a month, the minimum is €560 without children and €749 with children, and the maximum €1,225 without children, €1,400 with one child and €1,575 with two or more.
- Deadline: apply within 15 working days of your last day of work or you lose the days that have passed.
Time worked in another EU country counts with the U1 form, which you request from that country. If you arrive in Spain on unemployment benefit from your own country, you can keep it for three months to look for work (up to six if your country agrees) with form U2, and you must register as a job-seeker in Spain within seven days.
Common traps
- A trial period that is too long or unwritten.
- A fixed-term contract without a real reason.
- Waiting too long to claim unemployment.
- Mixing up gross and net. With 14 payments, the "normal" month is lower than a twelfth of the annual figure.
Labour law is national. In the Canary and Balearic Islands, Ceuta and Melilla only the regional holidays and local collective agreements change.
Are you going to work from Spain for an employer elsewhere? Read remote work in Spain.
Finally, keep your payslips and your contract. They are the proof of your contributions if you later claim unemployment, a pension or a residence status, and the SEPE asks for the employer certificates of the last six months. If your employer has not sent them, you can bring your own payslips when you apply.