Key facts at a glance
RETA cuota tiers
15 tramos
€206 to €607/month by net income
Tarifa plana
€80/month
First 12 months for new autónomos
€80,000 gap
~€1,820/yr
Employee ahead, about the same as at €30,000
At the same annual figure, a contrato indefinido employee nets more than an autónomo at every income level we modeled, and the gap barely moves. On €30,000, the employee nets about €1,790 more a year. At €80,000 it is still roughly €1,820, because the autónomo's higher cuota costs more than the tax relief it earns at every level.
But that comparison hides the real story: these two figures, autónomo net income and employee gross salary, aren't measuring the same thing. An employer separately pays roughly 30% of an employee's gross salary in employer Social Security contributions that never touch the payslip. An autónomo pays theirs entirely themselves, but from a smaller base (net income, after business expenses). The real decision isn't purely arithmetic, it involves control, risk, deductible expenses, and employment protections that don't show up in a net-income comparison at all.
Run your own autónomo net income, tier, and final take-home.
Open the Autónomo CalculatorHow the two structures actually differ
A contrato indefinido employee has income tax and Social Security withheld automatically from each payslip: 6.50% Social Security (contingencias comunes, desempleo, formación profesional, and MEI combined) plus IRPF withheld under the standard progressive scale, capped at €61,214.40 of contributable earnings a year for Social Security purposes. The employer separately pays their own Social Security contribution, roughly 30% of gross salary, on top, which is real cost to the business but invisible on the employee's own numbers.
An autónomo's Social Security cost works differently. Since 2023, the RETA cuota is set by a tramo (tier) matched to estimated net monthly income, ranging from about €206/month at the lowest tramo (net income up to €670/month) to €607/month at the highest (net income above €6,000/month), 15 tramos in total. That cuota is deductible before IRPF is calculated, so an autónomo's IRPF taxable income is their net income minus the annual cuota, and IRPF itself uses the same standard progressive scale an employee faces.
The practical effect: at lower and middle incomes, the fixed-tramo cuota structure costs an autónomo slightly more relative to income than an employee's percentage-based Social Security, especially since an autónomo pays it entirely themselves. At higher incomes, both sides hit a ceiling, the employee's Social Security contribution base caps out, and the autónomo cuota tops out at Tramo 15, so the gap stops growing but doesn't close: the cuota is still about €3,300 a year higher than the employee's capped contribution at €80,000.
Autónomo vs contrato indefinido, three income levels
Both columns use the same headline figure, autónomo net income (after business expenses) against employee gross salary, isolating the tax and Social Security structure difference. Standard IRPF in both cases: the employee's base after Social Security, €2,000 of expenses and the work reduction; the autónomo's after the cuota and 5% of hard-to-justify expenses; both less the €5,550 personal allowance.
| Income | Autónomo tier | Autónomo cuota | Autónomo net | Employee SS | Employee net |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| €30,000 | Tramo 10 | €4,200/yr | €21,336 | €1,950 | €23,124 |
| €50,000 | Tramo 14 | €6,175/yr | €33,703 | €3,250 | €35,546 |
| €80,000 | Tramo 15 | €7,288/yr | €51,045 | €3,979 (capped) | €52,865 |
Figures use 2026 RETA cuota tiers and IRPF rates. Run your own exact net income through the Spain Autónomo Calculator, or check the equivalent salary as an employee on the Spain Salary Calculator.
Why the net-income comparison isn't the whole picture
An employer's real cost per employee is gross salary plus roughly 30% employer Social Security, meaning a €30,000 gross employee actually costs the business closer to €39,000. An autónomo billing that same €39,000 in gross revenue, after realistic business expenses, might land at a similar €30,000 net income used in the table above, meaning the honest comparison is autónomo gross billing against employee full employment cost, not autónomo net income against employee gross salary.
What doesn't show up in either number: a contrato indefinido carries statutory redundancy entitlements, guaranteed paid holiday, employer-administered sick pay, and unemployment benefit (paro) built from years of contributions. Autónomo status carries none of that automatically, though optional cese de actividad (self-employed unemployment) coverage exists at extra cost, and offers control over pricing, clients, and deductible business expenses an employee generally doesn't have.
The tarifa plana changes the calculus early on
New autónomos pay a flat €80/month cuota for their first 12 months, regardless of income tramo, extendable to 24 months total if net income stays below the Salario Mínimo Interprofesional. That's a fraction of the €300-600/month a standard tramo could cost, and it materially improves the numbers above during your first year or two, exactly when income is often lowest and least predictable.
The comparison in this article uses standard ongoing cuotas because that's the steady-state number that matters once the tarifa plana runs out. If you're weighing a first year as autónomo specifically, subtract the difference between your would-be tramo cuota and €80/month from the autónomo columns above, the gap narrows further, often in the autónomo's favor for that first year.
Model your own autónomo numbers
Enter your estimated annual net income and see your exact RETA tier, cuota, IRPF, and final take-home.
Open the Spain Autónomo CalculatorMonthly briefing
Get our monthly salary and market update
Salary movements, contractor rate changes, tax updates, and new tools. Sent once a month, no noise.
No spam. Unsubscribe any time. GDPR-compliant.
Frequently asked questions
Does an autónomo or an employee take home more at the same income level?
At the same annual figure (autónomo net income vs employee gross salary), a contrato indefinido employee nets more at every level we modeled, and by a remarkably steady amount: €23,124 vs €21,336 at €30,000, €35,546 vs €33,703 at €50,000, and €52,865 vs €51,045 at €80,000, roughly €1,800 a year each time. The autónomo's RETA cuota is well above an employee's Social Security contribution, and deducting it from taxable profit only recovers part of the difference; the employee's €2,000 general expense allowance and the autónomo's 5% allowance for hard-to-justify expenses roughly cancel out. The gap is real but modest, not the dramatic difference either side of the debate sometimes claims.
Why isn't this comparison as simple as it looks?
Because the two income figures aren't really equivalent. An autónomo's net income is revenue minus deductible business expenses, already the number left after running the business; an employee's gross salary is what their employer commits to paying before anything is deducted, and the employer separately pays a substantial employer Social Security contribution (roughly 30% of gross) that never appears on the employee's payslip. An autónomo who wants a true apples-to-apples comparison should think about their gross invoiced revenue before expenses as roughly comparable to an employee's full employment cost, not their net income to gross salary.
What does an autónomo actually pay that an employee doesn't have to think about?
The RETA cuota (Social Security contribution) is the same idea as an employee's contribution, but the autónomo pays 100% of it themselves rather than splitting the burden with an employer, and it's a fixed amount by income tramo rather than a percentage. An autónomo also pays quarterly estimated IRPF (Modelo 130) and settles the real annual liability the following year (Modelo 100), files their own VAT (IVA) where applicable, and carries the administrative overhead of invoicing, bookkeeping, and business expense tracking, work an employer's payroll department handles for a salaried employee.
What does being autónomo actually offer that a contrato indefinido doesn't?
Control over pricing and clients, the ability to deduct genuine business expenses against income before tax (an employee generally can't), and often materially higher earning potential if you can command a strong day rate or juggle multiple clients. The tarifa plana (€80/month flat cuota for the first 12 months, extendable to 24) also softens the early cost of going independent. What it doesn't offer is the employment protections a contrato indefinido carries, redundancy entitlements, paid holiday guaranteed by law, sick pay structured through the employer, and unemployment benefit (paro) built from years of Social Security contributions the same way an employee's would be.
How much does the RETA cuota tier change as income rises?
In steps, not smoothly. At €30,000 net income (€2,500/month), you land in Tramo 10 at €349.98/month. At €50,000 (€4,167/month), you're in Tramo 14 at €514.61/month. At €80,000 (€6,667/month), you hit the top Tramo 15 at €607.31/month, the ceiling: no matter how much higher your income climbs above €6,000/month, the cuota doesn't rise further. That flattening at the top is exactly why the autónomo-vs-employee gap narrows at higher incomes: the employee's Social Security also caps out (at the €61,214.40/year contribution ceiling), so both sides stop scaling their Social Security cost with income at similar territory.
Is the tarifa plana enough to make autónomo status worth it in year one?
It significantly softens the early cost. Paying a flat €80/month instead of a tramo-based cuota (which could be €300+/month even at modest income) matters a lot when you're building a client base and income is uncertain. But it's temporary, 12 months, extendable to 24 if your net income stays below the SMI, so the comparison in this article (which uses standard ongoing cuotas) is the one that matters for evaluating whether autónomo status makes sense once you're past that runway.
Related reading & tools