What are my rights at work in Spain, and what if I clean or care for someone in their home?

Everyone who works in Spain has the same core rights, whatever their papers: at least the SMI (salario mínimo interprofesional, the national minimum wage), a payslip, paid holiday, and registration with Social Security paid for by the employer. Domestic workers and carers — cleaning, cooking, childminding, caring for someone older in a private home — have had those same rights since the law changed in Sep 2022.

Does this apply to me

Yes, if someone pays you to work, live-in or live-out, however few hours you do. Immigration status does not remove these rights: Spanish immigration law says in as many words that not holding a work permit does not invalidate your employment contract as regards your rights as a worker — Ley Orgánica 4/2000, article 36.5. The one thing that article blocks is unemployment benefit, which needs a work authorisation. Barcelona City Council puts it plainly in its leaflet for domestic and care workers: if you have no papers, you still have rights.

Your contract, if you have nothing in writing

Either side can demand a written contract at any point, including part-way through the job, and written form is required where the work lasts more than four weeks. Then the sentence to remember: where there is no written agreement, the law presumes the contract is permanent and full-time — article 5 of Real Decreto 1620/2011.

The money, for 2026

Paid by the hour and living out, the legal minimum is €9.55 for every hour actually worked, already including the extra payments and holiday pay. Board and lodging can count as part of your pay, but never more than 30 per cent of it, and the SMI itself must reach you in cash.

These are the 2026 figures, set by Real Decreto 126/2026; older leaflets still print the 2025 wage, so check the year on anything you are shown.

Hours, rest and holiday

These entitlements are specific to domestic and care work:

Registration is the employer’s job

The household must register you with Social Security before you start, whatever the number of hours, and even if you also work in other homes. Since Jan 2023 an employer cannot push that duty onto the worker, not even below 60 hours a month, and since 1 Oct 2022 they must pay contributions for unemployment and for FOGASA, the fund that pays your wages if the household goes insolvent. That is what makes unemployment benefit real for a registered domestic worker: with 360 days contributed in the last six years, you can claim it.

To find out whether the household actually did it, ask Social Security for your “informe de vida laboral” (working-life report) at portal.seg-social.gob.es. It lists every period you have been registered. No digital certificate is needed and no fee is published: fill in your details, take a selfie and photograph your identity document.

Being sacked

Dismissal at the employer’s whim — “desistimiento” — was abolished for domestic workers in 2022. Your employer must give you the decision in writing and state the reason.

Severance is 12 days’ pay per year worked, capped at six monthly payments, where the reason is one of the special causes for domestic work; on an ordinary ground the general rules apply and are usually higher. You are also owed:

• unpaid wages
• overtime
• untaken holiday
• the proportional part of the two extra payments

Full-time workers get six paid hours a week during notice to look for another job. You do not have to sign the letter; if you sign, write “no conforme” next to your name.

If the employer gets that wrong

If they fail to give you the decision in writing, or to put the severance at your disposal at the same time, the law presumes they have chosen the Estatuto de los Trabajadores dismissal regime instead — considerably more favourable to you. Article 11.3 of Real Decreto 1620/2011.

The deadline

Miss the 20 days and the dismissal stands however unfair it was.

What to do, in order

First, write down what happened, with dates, hours and amounts, and keep bank transfers, messages and any payslip. Then:

• 1. Ring the Punts de Defensa dels Drets Laborals on 900 533 175, Mon–Fri 09:00–18:00, and book advice. It is a free council service, and its own page says it sees any person, wherever they live and whatever their administrative situation, by phone or in person in every district of Barcelona.
• 2. If it is a dismissal or money owed, file a conciliation form with the Generalitat — “papereta de conciliació” in Catalan, “papeleta de conciliación” in Spanish. It is free, it can be done online, and it is compulsory before a court will hear you. Filing pauses the 20-day clock; the count resumes the day after the conciliation attempt, or 15 days after filing if none takes place.
• 3. If you were never registered, or were paid below the minimum, or worked hours you were not paid for, report it to the Inspecció de Treball de Catalunya: Travessera de Gràcia 303-311, 08025, telephone 93 624 75 00, registry Mon–Fri 09:00–14:00, or file online. A complaint cannot be anonymous — you must identify yourself with a DNI, a NIE (Número de Identidad de Extranjero, the foreigner identification number) or a passport — and the inspectorate is required to keep your identity from the employer. Use form IP-107, which exists in English, Catalan, French and other languages, though not in Tagalog. No fee is published for a complaint.

Two protections worth knowing before you report

A dismissal without cause after you make a complaint is null. And if you have worked in Spain for at least six months in the two years before the complaint, cooperating with the labour inspectorate can open a route to a temporary residence authorisation for exceptional circumstances, under the current Reglamento de Extranjería (Real Decreto 1155/2024). Ask an adviser before you file, not after.

Where else to go

Useful words

Read next

• Where can I get free help finding a job in Barcelona?
• Do I have to file a tax return in Spain, and where do I get free help? A private household withholds no income tax, which changes the threshold that applies to you.
• Where do I get free legal advice on immigration, arraigo or family reunification?

Official source

The Spanish Labour Inspectorate publishes a full rights guide for domestic workers in Tagalog, “Alamin ang iyong mga karapatan”, at oeitss.gob.es, on the 2026 pay figures. The hours, rest, notice, severance and dismissal rules are Real Decreto 1620/2011 and the Estatuto de los Trabajadores at boe.es; the wage is Real Decreto 126/2026.