When you come to work in Spain, before you start, you must register for social security and subscribe to the plan that corresponds to your type of work. This is essential and will be valid throughout your professional life. This registration must be done every time you start a new job at a company. Once your contract expires, you should notify Social Security of such a change. If you are self-employed, you should request this yourself from the General Treasury of Social Security in Spain (T.G.S.S). However, if you are employed in a company, your employer will do this on your behalf. The T.G.S.S has several roles - it is not just responsible for the registration of companies but also the registration of employees and the self-employed, verifying their employment and their contributions to social security. It is also responsible for payment of all benefits and the repayment of all contributions.
Employer taxes, unlike the employee social contributions, are paid by the employer. They are directly deducted from the salary every month and are calculated according to gross compensation paid to employees.
All companies, regardless of sector, must contribute to social security. These contributions can cover the social benefits of employees for everything from illness, to accidents at work, retirement, unemployment and vocational training.
In Spain, business owners with 10 or more partners under their control have undergone an increase in their contributions recently. Contributions to the RETA (Regimen Especial de Trabajadores Autónomos) have increased from 256.72 Euros to 314.40 Euros per month. For companies, their contributions have increased to 1,051.50 Euros instead of 858.60 Euros.
These charges are paid by the employer. The rate is decided by the government in Spain taking into account that potential risks of each type of work so as to encourage employers to take the necessary measures to reduce such risks within the company.
Non-contributory benefits (when a former employee does not meet the conditions for entitlement to a basic pension) , health protection, add-ons to meet minimum pensions, allowances for disabled children and non-contributory benefits for dependent children are all financed from the State budget.
In terms of accidents at work, any accident suffered by an employee whilst at work and when it happens under the authority of the employer is qualified as a "work accident". The same thing applies if the accident occurs during the journey between home and the workplace.