The MEI in 2026: payrolls that exceed 61,214 euros per 12 months will contribute 92 euros per 12 months to pensions | Economy | EUROtoday

The Spanish pension system is underneath nice stress. The strain of retirement boomersthe better quantity of advantages for many who now retire, the low Spanish beginning fee and the assure of the buying energy of advantages will increase the portion of the general public pie that’s devoted to pensions. To climate the storm, the unions and the Ministry of Social Security agreed to undertake a brand new software to strengthen the system’s revenue, the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI). This surcharge on contributions, which attracts a number of consideration from the media, grows once more in 2026.

The 2026 MEI scales to 0.9% of the contribution base, a rise of 1 tenth in comparison with 2025. Of these 0.9 factors, 0.75 correspond to the corporate and 0.15 to the employee, a rise in comparison with the 0.67 paid by the employer in 2025 and 0.13 by the worker. Although the vast majority of the MEI is borne by the employer, a indisputable fact that employers insistently criticize, there’s additionally a smaller portion that corresponds to the employed individual.

The most contribution base for 2025 is 58,914 euros per 12 months, so now the MEI deducts a most of 76.59 euros all year long. Only staff with salaries at that stage or larger, round 8% of the overall, contribute that determine. With the rise within the most base in 2026 (as much as 61,214.4 euros) and the rise of 0.02 factors within the MEI contributed by the worker (as much as 0.15 factors), the very best salaries can add 91.82 euros per 12 months for this idea. Thus, at most, the MEI will deduct a further 15.23 euros per 12 months from payrolls, which might imply 1.27 euros per thirty days.

This calculation is predicated on the utmost contribution base, the restrict for calculating the necessary contributions of staff and corporations, however the overwhelming majority of staff are usually not at that remuneration stage. Above this ceiling, no extra social contributions are paid and, consequently, no rights to larger advantages are generated.

The common contribution base in 2025 for the overall regime is 2,255 euros per thirty days, which interprets into 27,060 euros per 12 months. This remuneration stage contributes to the MEI in 2025 about 35.18 euros and in 2026 it will be 40.59 euros. It is an annual improve of 5.41 euros, about 45 euro cents per thirty days. These calculations assume that the wage doesn’t improve, but when it did improve, the employee would discover the change within the MEI in a slight moderation of the rise.

The MEI has a stronger influence on the a part of the contributions contributed by the employer. Next 12 months, employers who pay the very best salaries can pay round 459 euros yearly, up from the present 394.7 euros. The path will develop to 1.2 proportion factors in 2029, of which one level will correspond to the corporate and 0.2 to the worker. This is added to different larger quantities in social contributions.

The mechanism, with its present design, reached the Official State Gazette in 2023, hand in hand with the pension system reform agreed upon by the Ministry of Social Security with UGT and CC OO, rejected by the employers’ associations CEOE and Cepyme. This reform targeted on strengthening the system’s revenue. Expenditure on contributory pensions closed 2025 at 189,000 million euros, 6.2% greater than the earlier 12 months.

According to the 2023 Salary Structure Survey ready by the INE, round 8% of staff obtain salaries that equal or exceed the utmost contribution base.

These excessive salaries additionally present one other further to finance the system, often called the solidarity payment. Since January 1, 2026, as established by the Government within the final Council of Ministers of the 12 months, this instrument is structured as follows:

• 1.15% to the a part of the remuneration between 5,101.21 euros and 5,611.32 euros, with 0.96% paid by the corporate and 0.19% paid by the employee.
• 1.25% to the a part of the remuneration between 5,611.33 euros and seven,651.80 euros, with 1.04% paid by the corporate and 0.21% paid by the employee.
• 1.46% for the a part of the remuneration that exceeds 7,651.80 euros, with 1.22% paid by the corporate and 0.24% paid by the employee.

Government Defense

The Ministry of Social Security, consulted by this newspaper lately in regards to the MEI, defended the necessity for this instrument: “The Intergenerational Equity Mechanism addresses the impact of demographic changes in the coming decades, ensuring the sustainability of the pension system, while guaranteeing intergenerational equity and the adequacy of current and future pensions.”

The Government recollects that this regulation has not undergone any modifications since 2023 and that the quantity that’s deducted for this idea from the employee’s payroll depends upon the contribution base. “The replacement of the sustainability factor with the current MEI ensures intergenerational equity, benefiting young workers more who, if the sustainability factor had been applied, would have seen their pensions drastically reduced,” provides Social Security.

The ministry faces a barrage of criticism for this improve in contributions, which enterprise associations fiercely reject as a result of improve in labor prices it implies. At the identical time, totally different voices query the rising spending on pensions in Spain and the better want for the switch system (funds that don’t come from contributions). According to the projections of the European Commission, Spain would be the OECD nation that can dedicate the very best proportion of its GDP to paying pensions in 2050, 16.8%.