In 2025 the “solidarity” quota of the highest salaries to pay pensions comes into force. This is one of the measures of the second block of the pension reform, which will be rolled out little by little. Next year, salaries above 4,909 euros gross, where the maximum contribution base is expected to be in 2025, will contribute around 1% to Social Security, with the aim of strengthening the public system in the face of the increase in retirements of the generation baby boom.
The “solidarity” quota is part of the measures to increase Social Security income that included the latest pension reforms and that pointed in several directions. One of them focused on increasing the contribution of the highest salaries, which to date placed Spain as one of the European countries where the highest salaries contributed the least.
It must be remembered that in Spain salaries contribute up to a certain level, the maximum contribution base, which in 2024 is just over 4,700 euros per month (in 12 payments). Remunerations above that amount do not contribute to Social Security, with the logic that then pensions are also ‘capped’, with a maximum that can be received from the public system. In 2024, the maximum pension is 3,175 euros per month (in 14 payments).
Thus, the pension reform agreed to increase what the highest salaries pay in two ways. Firstly, by progressively raising this maximum contribution base in the coming decades, a process that began in 2024, and which is also accompanied by a gradual increase in the maximum pension, which begins in 2025. As of January, the forecast is that the maximum pension reaches 3,267 euros per month, after applying the general increase in average inflation (2.8%) plus the 0.115 points that will be added annually until 2050.
Three sections in the “solidarity” quota
Secondly, the so-called “solidarity” quota was created, which will mean for the first time a contribution to Social Security of salaries above that barrier of the maximum contribution base and which is not linked to the right to a higher pension. This applies to employed workers, but not to self-employed workers with high earnings, who were excluded from this contribution.
There are three sections in the “solidarity” fee:
— The part of remuneration between the maximum contribution base and up to 10% more: with a fee that will reach 5.5%.
— The part of remuneration between 10% above the maximum base and 50%: with a quota that will reach 6%.
– And the part of remuneration above 50% of the maximum base: with a fee that will reach 7%.
As noted, the additional contribution for the highest salaries will be deployed for the first time in 2025, but will be applied progressively in the coming years, so the percentages to be paid will be lower next year.
Who pays the fee and how much does it mean in 2025?
In 2025, given the average inflation of 2.8%, to which the pension increase will be applied, the maximum contribution base is expected to increase by 4%. This increase results from adding to the average CPI (2.8%) the additional 1.2 percentage points that are added annually in the progressive increase in the maximum contribution base, which is expected until 2050.
Thus, the maximum contribution base will go from 4,720 euros per month this year to around 4,909 euros per month in 12 payments (58,912 euros per year) in 2025.
Therefore, the workers covered by the new “solidarity” quota are those who receive salaries above 4,909 euros per month. According to a study by the Bank of Spain, the financial sector is the most affected by additional contributions to the highest salaries, since they are the activity with the most workers above the maximum contribution base.
Given the progressive application, in 2025 the new “solidarity” quota will be:
— 0.92% in the first tranche, for salaries from 4,909 to around 5,400 euros per month.
– From 1% in the second tranche, to remunerations between 5,400 euros per month and 7,360 euros per month.
– And 1.17% in the third tranche, for salaries starting at 7,360 euros per month.
If we imagine a worker with a salary of about 7,500 euros per month (90,000 euros per year), for example, the “solidarity” fee that would have to be paid in 2025 would be around 26 euros per month (309 euros per year).
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