Freelance rates in Spain: a rate that survives the quota

A Spanish freelancer’s rate does not compete with an employee’s salary: it competes with that salary PLUS the monthly quota, un-withheld income tax, holidays nobody pays and hours nobody bills. In numbers: a 30,000 salary, around 40,000 of real cost, and 1,100 billable hours instead of 1,750.

The original sin: dividing a salary by hours

A 30,000-euro employee does not cost 30,000: with employer contributions the real figure runs around 40,000, and more with bonuses, holidays and equipment. That employee also works some 1,750 hours of which you, as a freelancer, would bill 1,100 on a good year: the rest goes to finding clients, quoting and admin. Dividing 30,000 by 1,750 produces the rate of ruin.

The real floor, with Spain’s math inside

The honest path runs backwards: decide your target annual net, add the quota (your real bracket from the quota calculator; the 2026 brackets run from 200 to 590 euros a month, checked 2026-08-22 against Infoautonomos’ quota table) and estimated income tax, and divide by genuinely BILLABLE hours. The gross-to-net calculator does the tax half; our rate calculator in euros closes the loop. Say your target net is 28,000: run through our gross-to-net engine (reference income-tax scale, 2026 RETA brackets), you need to bill about 41,700 euros, because roughly 5,700 goes to the quota and 7,900 to income tax on the way. Divide by the 1,100 hours that 25 billable hours a week leaves after holidays and dry weeks, and the floor lands at about 38 euros an hour, not 25. That number is not greed: it is arithmetic, and your region’s own scale can nudge it either way.

Project pricing without donating the margin

A project price builds up from your floor rate times honestly estimated hours, plus a buffer for revisions. What never works is accepting the client’s budget and dividing afterwards to discover you came out at twelve euros an hour. Your number first, the negotiation second.

When to say no

A client who only works below your floor is not a client: it is a hole with deadlines. In year one you take a few to eat and learn; by year two, every below-floor job displaces one that pays. Raising legacy clients or letting them go is the single most profitable decision of year two.