Owners coming from the UK, Ireland or northern Europe often expect the agency, the housekeeper or the property manager to deal with the paperwork, or assume that paying cash for a few hours a week is how it's done here. In Spain, the household itself is the employer.
That's the core of hiring a housekeeper in Spain. If you employ someone directly in your home, you're the employer, under a special set of rules for household staff (RD 1620/2011, art. 1.2). It's manageable, but it has rules, and some of them changed on 5 October 2026 (RD 723/2026). We're HouseHoldTalent, a private network founded in Gibraltar that introduces household staff to homes in Gibraltar and on the Costa del Sol.
First question: who is the employer?
| Set-up | Who employs | Which rules |
|---|---|---|
| You hire the person directly for your home | You, as head of the household | The household employee rules, RD 1620/2011 (arts. 1.2 and 1.3) |
| A company (for example a Spanish SL, a foreign company or a family office set up as a company) hires the person | The company | Ordinary Spanish employment law, not the household rules (art. 2.1.a) |
| An agency or platform introduces the person, and you hire them | You | The household rules (arts. 1.2 and 4.1) |
| A temporary employment agency (ETT) supplies the person | The agency | Not the household rules (art. 2.1.b) |
The company set-up matters more than people expect. If your villa is held by a company and the company hires, you're looking at a different contract and a different body of law. Raise it with your gestor (the adviser who handles payroll and paperwork) before you hire.
There's a second trap. If the person will also work, with any regularity, for your business, the law presumes an ordinary employment relationship instead, unless that work is marginal or occasional (RD 1620/2011, art. 2.3).
Hiring a housekeeper in Spain, step by step
- Define the role and hours.
- Check the right to work.
- Put the contract in writing.
- Register with Social Security before day one.
- Do the risk assessment.
- Pay every month, with a payslip.
- Keep it up to date.
Start with the role: live-in or live-out, full-time, part-time or by the hour, and exactly what it covers.
Then check the right to work. Nationals of the European Economic Area (which includes the EU) and Switzerland can work once they have a NIE, the foreigner's identity number. Other nationals need a residence and work authorisation before they start (LO 4/2000, art. 36). This catches British families out: UK nationals who arrived in Spain after 1 January 2021 are treated as non-EU, while those covered by the Withdrawal Agreement keep working as before (Ministerio de Inclusión, Brexit guide, September 2024).
Put the contract in writing. It's required for part-time contracts, for fijo-discontinuo (seasonal permanent) contracts and for fixed-term contracts over four weeks, and either side can ask for a written contract anyway (ET, art. 8.2; RD 1620/2011, art. 5.3). Since 5 October 2026, the essential terms must be given in writing before the person starts (RD 723/2026, arts. 2.2 and 7.1). Our free contract template (Word) covers this, and our Spanish guide to the contract explains each clause.
Register with Social Security before day one. The first time, you get an employer code, the código de cuenta de cotización (CCC). The worker's registration, or alta, can be filed up to 60 days before the start date and no later than the first day (RD 84/1996, art. 32.3). You'll need your DNI or NIE, the worker's details, a contract showing the agreed hours and pay, and an account at a bank that works with Social Security, with a direct debit mandate. It's done online through Importass, or your gestor can do it (Seguridad Social, Guía práctica del empleo en el hogar). The same alta also covers the contract notice to the public employment service, so there's no separate SEPE filing (RD 1620/2011, DA 1ª).
Next, the risk assessment. The INSST, Spain's workplace safety institute, has a free online tool on Prevencion10.es. Give the worker the written preventive measures, protective equipment free of charge and the harassment protocol (RD 893/2024, arts. 3 to 5 and DA 2ª).
Pay every month with a payslip (RD 1620/2011, art. 8.6). You deduct the worker's Social Security share from her pay, and contributions come out of your account by direct debit.
Finally, report changes of pay or hours to Social Security within 6 calendar days, and keep a daily time record: the EU Court of Justice has held that household employers can't be exempted from recording working time (judgment of 19 December 2024, case C-531/23).
What it really costs
The legal floor in 2026 is €1,221 a month in 14 payments for full-time work, or €9.55 an hour for live-out work by the hour, with everything included (RD 126/2026).
On top of pay comes Social Security. This is the official example, exactly as Social Security gives it.
| Monthly | |
|---|---|
| Contribution base: €1,221 salary, plus two extra payments totalling €2,700 a year spread over 12 months (€225) | €1,446 |
| Employer's contribution | €322.03 |
| Worker's contribution (deducted from her pay) | €92.54 |
| Total paid to Social Security | €414.57 |
That example already includes the 20% reduction and the 80% bonificaciones (discounts) for household employers, which apply automatically as long as you don't owe Social Security or the tax authorities. In this example, the employer's share works out at about 22% of the contribution base. For your own figures, use Social Security's household contributions calculator.
Then budget for the rest. If the worker is off sick with a common illness, you pay days 4 to 8 and the managing entity pays from day 9 (LGSS, art. 251.a). There are two extra payments a year, at the end of each half-year unless agreed otherwise, and 30 days' paid holiday (RD 1620/2011, arts. 8.4 and 9.7). For live-in staff, room and board can count towards pay, up to 30% of total pay, with at least the minimum wage still paid in cash (art. 8.2).
What do households actually pay? One Marbella property firm's 2026 guide puts a full-time live-out housekeeper at €1,400 to €2,200 gross a month, and part-time help at €12 to €18 gross an hour. For senior roles, see our guides to hiring a house manager and what a private chef costs.
Live-in staff: the rules that surprise foreign owners
There must be at least 12 hours between working days, which can drop to 10 for live-in staff with the rest made up within four weeks, and at least two hours a day for main meals, which don't count as work. Weekly rest is 36 consecutive hours (RD 1620/2011, art. 9).
After the day's work and any agreed on-call time, staff aren't obliged to stay in the house. On holiday, they don't have to stay in the home or travel with the family (art. 9).
On-call time, called presence time, is capped at an average of 20 hours a week over a month unless it's compensated with paid rest, and it's paid at least as ordinary hours (art. 9.2). Our template also offers an optional cap of 48 hours a week in total, because EU case law can treat on-call time at a place set by the employer as working time (Directive 2003/88/EC, art. 6).
If a live-in employee is off sick, they can stay housed for at least 30 days, unless hospitalisation is recommended (RD 1620/2011, art. 10.3). And a decision to end a live-in employee's contract can't be carried out between 17:00 and 08:00, except for a very serious breach of loyalty and trust (art. 11.4).
Our one piece of advice for a first live-in hire: before day one, show them the room and agree in writing what happens at night, when the working day ends and which days are off. Most problems with live-in staff start with the question nobody asked.
Holiday homes and seasonal staff
A home used for part of the year usually works one of three ways. A permanent part-time or hourly arrangement. A fijo-discontinuo contract for the season, which our template offers at full time during the active periods (ET, art. 16). Or a caretaker for a home that's empty much of the year; caretaking, gardening and driving all count as household work (RD 1620/2011, art. 1.4). For a larger estate, a live-in couple can cover the house and the grounds.
Temporary contracts need a real, specific reason, and for production circumstances they last six months at most (ET, art. 15). "We're only here in summer" usually points to fijo-discontinuo rather than a string of temporary contracts. Check the set-up with your gestor.
Cameras, privacy and confidentiality
Many villas have CCTV. If cameras are used to monitor staff, the employer must tell them beforehand, expressly, clearly and concisely, and cameras or sound recording are never allowed in places for rest or leisure, such as changing rooms, toilets and dining areas (LO 3/2018, art. 89). Our template goes further and rules out cameras in the employee's own room too.
A reasonable confidentiality clause is normal, and our template includes one. It can't stop staff from defending their rights before the labour inspectorate or the courts, or from reporting breaches the law protects (Ley 2/2023).
Do you withhold tax?
A household employer resident in Spain who isn't acting as a business doesn't withhold income tax from household staff (Ley 35/2006, art. 99.2; Reglamento del IRPF, art. 76.1; DGT ruling V2870-23).
If you don't live in Spain, the withholding rules may differ (Reglamento del IRPF, art. 76.1.d), so get advice from a gestor before you start. The worker generally files her own return if her employment income exceeds €15,876 a year (Ley 35/2006, art. 96.3.c).
What getting it wrong costs
Not registering a worker with Social Security is a serious infringement, fined €3,750 to €12,000 per worker (LISOS, arts. 22.2 and 40.1.e). Employing a non-EU national without a residence and work authorisation is a very serious infringement, fined €10,001 to €100,000 per worker (LO 4/2000, arts. 54.1.d and 55.1.c).
There's a quieter risk too. Without a written agreement, the contract is presumed to be permanent and full-time unless proven otherwise (RD 1620/2011, art. 5.2), which matters if you thought you'd agreed ten hours a week. None of this is hard to avoid if it's set up properly from day one.
Ending the employment
A household employer can end the contract for a justified reason, such as a fall in household income or a change in the household's needs. The decision goes in writing with the reason, with 12 days' pay per year worked, up to six months' pay, made available at the same time. Notice is 20 days if the job lasted more than a year and 7 days otherwise, and a full-time worker gets six paid hours a week to look for work during it. Missing the written form or the payment means the ordinary dismissal rules are presumed to apply (RD 1620/2011, art. 11). Our Spanish guide to the contract covers the detail.
Spain and Gibraltar are not the same
If your home is in Gibraltar, none of the Spanish steps above apply. Gibraltar has its own process: the vacancy is registered with the Department of Employment at least 10 days before the start date, and every worker needs a Notice of Terms of Engagement. Work permits follow Gibraltar's own rules. See our guide to living in Spain and working in Gibraltar and the legal section of our house manager guide.
Our free contract template
The template is in Spanish, the language of the official process and of any gestor who checks it. It follows the household rules and the new October 2026 information rules (RD 723/2026). It covers full-time, part-time, live-in, temporary and seasonal options; pay, rest and holidays; cameras and confidentiality; a box with the data Social Security will ask for; and annexes for work abroad and the daily time record.
