In partnership with
THE WAYPOINT SUR
Who is your employee these days?
Is the person who works for you an employee?
On the Costa, the cleaner, gardener, tutor, music teacher and assistant can work under very different arrangements. Their legal status depends on how the work is organised.
Today we start with two cases: people you pay directly for cleaning or gardening, and support staff at your Spanish business. We'll return to the others. The local person working with you for your foreign company is a different question we plan to examine next week.
Spain's Workers' Statute presumes employment where someone provides paid services for another's account, within that person's organisation and direction. That presumption can be rebutted. Invoices do not decide it, nor does registration as an autónomo — self-employed person.
Five questions before choosing
Use the Labour Inspectorate's questions for each arrangement, from the worker's perspective:
Do you have a boss or clients?
Do you receive a salary or fees?
Is the business someone else's or your own?
Are hours or workplace imposed, or can you decide when and where?
Do you bear the business's costs and losses?
Dependence points towards employment. These indicators work together; none gives a verdict alone.
Royal Decree 723/2026, Spain's new employment-information rule, comes into force on Monday 5 October without changing who counts as an employee.
For covered new relationships starting then or later and lasting more than four weeks, it expands the written-information duty and requires delivery before work starts; an adequate written contract already held by the worker counts.
Our read: it covers household employment subject to its special rules and makes 5 October a useful prompt to choose deliberately.
At home and at your business
Dependent household employment includes gardening. Direct payment or the task alone does not establish employment; genuinely independent providers remain outside this regime.
Since 1 January 2023, household employers register and pay contributions regardless of hours. Previously, workers below 60 hours a month could handle this themselves.
In our 17 April issue, we put household registration "within the first month" and treated cleaners, carers and household staff as one classification. A closer reading of the primary sources points to registration before work starts, with exclusions for genuinely independent providers and workers employed by companies or temporary-work agencies.
In our 25 May issue, we said cleaners serving several households on invoices could register as self-employed. A closer reading: several clients and invoices do not settle status, and each household that actually employs someone must register its own relationship.
The 2026 minimum for external hourly household work is €9.55 an hour actually worked, including all pay items.
If your Spanish business sets someone's hours and directs their work, that points towards employment. An employing business must register as an employer before starting activity and register its worker before work starts. Part-time contracts require writing; the collective agreement follows the business's actual activity, not the assistant's title.
Four routes you can choose
One: formalise.
If the relationship is employment, register as employer and register new workers before they start.
In April, we wrote "issue a contract". A closer reading: contracts can be oral; writing is required in specified cases, including part-time work, or when either party asks. Written information is a separate duty.
In May, we wrote "before the first formalised working day". A closer reading points to before actual work begins. Regularise existing work on its real facts; later paperwork does not erase earlier obligations.
Our May estimate was €1,629 monthly. A closer reading gives an illustration of about €1,742 in average monthly pay and employer contributions for full-time household employment at the 2026 minimum: indefinite contract, standard relief eligibility and no additional contributable pay.
Pay is €17,094 annually, 14 payments of €1,221, averaging €1,424.50 monthly. Employer contributions are about €317 with 20% relief on employer common-contingency contributions and 80% on unemployment and wage-guarantee contributions. Under those assumptions, about €408 is the combined Social Security debit, including the worker's share.
Two: make the independence real.
Own clients, prices, schedule and tools, the ability to send someone else and bearing business risk point towards independence when weighed together. No single feature guarantees it. Where the whole arrangement is genuinely independent, an invoice describes the service accurately.
Three: buy the service from a company.
A service company or temporary-work agency that actually employs the staff is their employer, outside the household regime. A placement agency that merely introduces someone leaves household employer duties with you.
Four: carry on as before.
If the relationship is employment, failing to register the worker is a serious infringement: €3,750 to €12,000 per worker. In April, we wrote that the fine "without a contract" starts at €3,126.
A closer reading separates three infringements. €3,126 was the minimum for failing to register a worker from 1 August 2011, replaced on 1 October 2021. Missing a legally required written contract is serious (€751 to €7,500); missing required written information is minor (€70 to €750).
Contributions run from the first working day. The employer pays both shares and cannot later deduct the worker's share that went unwithheld.
For overdue contributions where filing duties were missed, the surcharge is 20% if paid before the debt claim or assessment's payment period expires, 35% afterwards. Timely-filed but unpaid contributions have different, lower rates.
Social Security contribution assessment, collection and sanction actions generally have four-year limitation periods. Qualifying notified actions interrupt them, so there is no guaranteed cap.
If the employer failed to register on time, the worker can apply directly. Social Security must inform the Labour Inspectorate for checks. That does not mean an automatic visit, finding or fine.
Household employees have contributed for unemployment protection since 1 October 2022, with benefits subject to eligibility. Our read: that gives a worker a practical reason to seek registration.
Put the facts on paper
For uncertain arrangements, take the facts to a graduado social — qualified labour-law adviser. The Colegio Oficial de Graduados Sociales de Málaga y Melilla is at Calle Compañía 17, 29008 Málaga.
For the October detail, read our guide to employers' written-information duties, including its section on staff you call autónomos.
Checked September 2026.
Spanish-lite
Quiero darte de alta en la Seguridad Social. — I want to register you with Social Security.
Use this when arranging registration as the employer.
The bottom line
Our read: clearer written terms and existing household protections are reasons to handle working arrangements more formally. The choice rests on how the work happens.
See you on the paseo — A. and the WaypointSur team, with the five questions taped to the fridge.
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