Spanish Severance Pay: How Indemnización por Despido Is Calculated (2026)

The compensation for a dismissal in Spain looks like a single headline number, but it is built from three inputs that all have to be right: the daily wage, the rate that applies to your dismissal, and, for older contracts, a split at February 2012 that most calculators ignore. This page walks through each, then gives you a tool that does the arithmetic.

Information last verified on 22 July 2026. This page provides general legal information about Spanish employment law and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case.

Step one: the daily wage

Every figure below is a number of DAYS of salary, so the daily wage decides the euros. The salario/día used for the indemnización is the gross annual salary divided by 365, and the annual salary must include the proportional part of the pagas extraordinarias and any salario en especie that counts as salary under art. 26 ET. Using the net figure, or a bare monthly salary divided by 30, understates it. Getting this input right is the single most common mistake.

Step two: the rate

The rate depends on why you were dismissed:

• Despido improcedente (unfair): 33 días per year of service, art. 56.1.
• Despido objetivo (objective causes): 20 días per year, art. 53.1.b.
• Despido disciplinario procedente (a fair disciplinary dismissal): nothing.

Periods of less than a year are prorated by month in every case.

Step three: the caps, and the pre-2012 split

The caps also depend on the dismissal. An improcedente dismissal is capped at 24 mensualidades; an objetivo one at 12 mensualidades.

The complication is history. Under disposición transitoria undécima, a contract signed before 12 February 2012 is calculated in two tranches: the time worked before that date at 45 días per year, and the time after at 33. The two are added. The result cannot exceed 720 días of salary, unless the pre-2012 tranche alone already goes above 720, in which case that higher figure becomes the ceiling, and never above 42 mensualidades in any case. This doble cálculo is exactly where a generic calculator built for post-2012 contracts gets the wrong, lower answer for a long-serving worker.

The calculator

The tool below runs all three steps, including the pre-2012 doble cálculo, from your salary and your actual contract dates. It is an estimate for general information, not a guaranteed entitlement: the real figure turns on what counts as salario in your case and on how a court rounds the service, and only a Juzgado de lo Social settles a dispute about the amount.

A worked example

Take a worker on a gross annual salary of 30.000 euros, so a daily wage of about 82,19 euros (30.000 / 365), dismissed as improcedente after ten full years of service, all after 2012. The sum is 33 días times 10 años, which is 330 días, times 82,19 euros, giving roughly 27.123 euros. The 24-mensualidades cap (about 60.000 euros here) does not bite, so that is the figure.

Now move the start date back to 2005. The first seven years accrue at 45 días and the rest at 33, the two tranches add to more than 720 días, and the 720-días ceiling caps the result. Same salary, very different number, and only the doble cálculo reveals it.

What the indemnización is not

The indemnización is not the finiquito. The finiquito is the settlement of what you are already owed on any termination, including a resignation. The indemnización is separate compensation for a dismissal, and it is owed only when the dismissal is improcedente or falls into the objective or collective categories.

A worker who resigns is owed a finiquito and no indemnización. For when a dismissal is found unfair in the first place, see despido improcedente; for the 20-días route, the employment section overview.

This page is general legal information about Spanish employment law and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case. The controlling text is always the current version of the Estatuto de los Trabajadores in the BOE.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I calculate severance pay in Spain?

Multiply your daily wage (gross annual salary, including prorated extra payments, divided by 365) by the applicable rate: 33 días per year for an unfair dismissal or 20 días for an objective dismissal, prorating part-years by month. Then apply the cap: 24 monthly payments for improcedente, 12 for objetivo. If your contract began before 12 February 2012, the earlier service is counted at 45 días per year under the doble cálculo. The calculator on this page runs all of that.

What salary is used for the calculation?

The gross annual salary, including the proportional part of the pagas extraordinarias and any salario en especie that counts under art. 26 of the Estatuto de los Trabajadores, divided by 365 to get the daily wage. Using the net amount or a plain monthly figure produces too low a number.

What is the doble cálculo?

It is the two-tranche calculation in disposición transitoria undécima for contracts signed before 12 February 2012. Service before that date is paid at 45 días per year and service after at 33, and the tranches are added, subject to a ceiling of 720 días of salary (or the pre-2012 tranche if it is higher) and never more than 42 monthly payments.

Do I get severance if I resign?

No indemnización. If you resign voluntarily you are still owed your finiquito, the settlement of unpaid wages, accrued holiday and prorated extra payments, but no dismissal compensation. Severance is owed only on certain dismissals, not on a resignation.