Salaries greater than 4,909 euros per month will pay an extra contribution from January 1

The entry into force of the so-called solidarity quota will affect employees with high salaries, but not the self-employed

Dec. 1 () –

From January 1, 2025, Social Security will apply an additional contribution, called the solidarity fee, for salaries that exceed the maximum base, which for next year will be 4,909 euros per month (58,908 euros per year), after being revalued by 4% compared to 2024.

This solidarity quota will be distributed between employer and worker, although not in the same proportion: around 83.4% will be borne by the company and around 16.6% will be borne by the worker.

The pension reform carried out by José Luis Escrivá when he was Minister of Social Security establishes that, from 2024 to 2050, the maximum contribution bases must annually increase the average CPI of the twelve months prior to November of each year plus a fixed amount of 1.2 points.

Taking into account that the interannual CPI for November advanced by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) has been 2.4% (data that must be confirmed in mid-December), it is obtained that the average inflation from December 2023 to November 2024 is 2.8%.

This is the percentage by which contributory pensions will rise next year and also the maximum base, although 1.2 points must be added to the latter, so that its increase for 2025 will be 4%, up to 4,909 euros per month or 58,908 euros per year.

The so-called solidarity quota that will come into force on January 1 consists of an additional contribution for the part of the salary that exceeds the maximum contribution base. It is applied in sections and progressively.

In 2025 the solidarity fee will be 0.92% for the part of the salary that exceeds the maximum base by up to 10%; 1% for the part of the salary that is between the additional 10% of the base and 50%, and 1.17% for the salary bracket that exceeds the maximum base by more than 50%.

As an example, and taking as a reference the maximum base of 4,909 euros per month that will be in force in 2025, salaries 10% higher than the maximum base, in this case 5,400 euros per month, will have an additional contribution of 0.92 % on the 491 euros of earnings that exceed the maximum base, that is, they would contribute 4.5 euros more per month or 54 euros more per year.

Being a progressive system, if the salary exceeds the maximum base by up to 50%, that is, if a maximum of 7,363.5 euros per month were collected, the solidarity fee would have to be applied to the amount that exceeds the maximum base ( 2,454.5 euros per month) in two tranches: the first 491 euros of excess over the maximum base would be taxed with an additional contribution of 0.92% (4.5 euros per month) and the The remaining 1,963.5 euros would be taxed at 1% (19.63 euros). Thus, in total, the solidarity fee for a salary of 7,363.5 euros would be 24.13 euros per month or 289.56 euros annually.

If the salary were higher than 7,363.5 euros per month, that is, if it exceeded the maximum base by 50%, the three types of additional contribution (0.92%, 1% and 1.17%) would be applied to your corresponding sections.

In 2045, when the solidarity quota is fully deployed, the first tranche will have a 5.5% quota, a 6% rate will be applied to the second tranche, and 7% to the third.

This additional contribution does not generate the right to a higher pension amount and affects employed workers, not the self-employed, who already have established their own contribution system based on actual income.

The distribution of contribution rates for solidarity between employer and worker maintains the same proportion as the distribution of the general rate of contribution to Social Security for common contingencies.

NEW INCREASE IN THE MEI IN 2025

Along with the start of the solidarity quota, in 2025 the excess contribution represented by the so-called Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI) will increase again.

Specifically, the MEI contribution will be 0.8%, compared to 0.7% this year) for both self-employed and salaried workers and regardless of the amount of their salary.

The MEI will continue to rise until 2029, the year after which it will be at 1.2%, and what is entered through it is intended to increase the so-called ‘pension piggy bank’.

Both with the solidarity quota, as well as with the MEI and the increase in the maximum base above the CPI, the aim is to improve Social Security income to protect the system in the face of the years of greatest financial tension, the decade of the 40 of this century, when the ‘baby boom’ generation retires.