how to calculate it in 2026 with examples

Administrative language often includes confusing and complex terms, but they definitely affect your life. One of these terms is “regulatory base”, a concept that appears regularly in the regulations and conditions to determine how much are you going to charge for your benefit due to unemployment or during medical leave.

However, and despite being a basic concept to calculate how much money you should receive in times of greatest work vulnerability, the regulatory base is not a fixed figure nor that it appears explicitly reflected on your payrollso we are going to explain how to calculate it and how it is applied with different examples.

What is the regulatory basis of payroll

If the labor market were a religion, the regulatory basis would probably be the equivalent of its bible. This concept is the pillar that allows you to calculate the salary that would correspond to you when you lose your job and begin to collect unemployment benefits, for the calculation of retirement and even for medical leave or permits.

In summary, the regulatory base is the reference scale from which Social Security determines how much you will receive when you access a benefit. Depending on the amount of this regulatory base and the percentage that Social Security has established for a specific benefit, it will result in the amount that the employee will receive each month in their benefits.

However, and despite the fact that its name may be misleading, the regulatory basis of the payroll, paradoxically, It does not appear on your payroll as such, but rather it is an average of certain contribution bases.

Its calculation involves concepts such as the base salary, salary supplements, extra payments, Social Security contributions or withholdings that are applied to your payroll. Therefore, it is not a fixed amount as it is the gross salary or a certain percentage such as the personal income tax withholding that does appear on your monthly payroll.

In other words, the regulatory basis is not something you need to know on your payroll, but only You’re going to need it when something interrupts your work life. and you must be compensated for it: medical leavematernity or paternity leave, unemployment or retirement.

Difference with the contribution base

One of the main factors to calculate the regulatory base is, precisely, the contribution base. That is, the monthly amount on both the employee and the company pay the contributions to Social Security every month.

This contribution basis It is calculated by adding the employee’s base salary, the salary supplements he receives (seniority, tools, overtime, etc.) and the proportional part of the extra payments if they were prorated for collect them in 12 payments. Based on this amount, the percentages that both the worker and the company contribute to Social Security are calculated.

Due to similarity, the regulatory base can be confused with the contribution base. However, unlike the regulatory base, the contribution base does appear reflected in the payrollso the worker can know it when he receives it, since the contribution base is what is contributed while working, unlike the regulatory base that is used to calculate the amount of the benefit when he stops working.

Given that the amounts for which they are contributed are calculated in the form of percentages, the final amount of these contributions depends on the sum of the contribution base, since in some months you may receive more or less overtime or other supplements.

Difference with base salary

If the regulatory base serves to calculate how much do you earn in a job to, based on it, calculate the amount of a contributory benefit, wouldn’t the base salary serve as a reference?

He base salary It is only the fixed part of the salary agreed in your contract. That is, the minimum salary you will receive for doing your job. However, this figure does not reflect the reality of your work since it does not include additional benefits such as prorated extra pay, monthly overtime or bonuses for objectives.

By not reflecting the reality of your salarythis concept does not serve on its own to calculate benefits because, in reality, the employee does not receive that base salary, but rather the part of the Social Security contributions that correspond to him, as well as the deductions for personal income tax, are deducted from it.

The regulatory base takes into account the contribution base, which includes all the amounts contributed to Social Security in a specific month, so its amount is different from that of the base salary.

How to calculate the regulatory base of a payroll

There is no single valid formula for all cases, because the calculation depends on the type of benefit for which it is made because Social Security establishes different percentages depending on whether it is for retirement, unemployment, paternity or maternity leave or due to sick leave.

In common situations such as a temporary disability, the regulatory base is obtained by taking the contribution base for the month prior to the leave (that is, the base salary plus all salary supplements) and dividing it by the number of days to which said contribution refers (for example, 30 days if collected monthly).

Each assumption is governed by different factors and percentages (calculation time range, economic factors, exemptions, etc.), so knowing the regulatory basis is only part of the calculation of the benefit.

Regulatory basis for the self-employed

In the case of the self-employed, the regulatory base is a little more complex to calculate since it is not based on a more or less stable figure as in the case of employees (base salary + supplements), since from the 2023 reformyour contribution base adapts to real income. And, therefore, the calculation of its regulatory base is as variable as it is. your contribution base.

If, for example, a self-employed person has had four different contribution bases (because their income has fluctuated during the year), their regulatory base will be the average of those four contribution bases based on the time that each of them has been active.

For example, to calculate the regulatory base for a quarter of a self-employed worker who for two months has earned 1,350 euros and in the third month has earned 1,825 euros. Taking into account the contribution basis table for income set by Social Security, we have that during the first two months it had a contribution base of 960.78 euros, and the third, by increasing two sections in income, the base increases to 1,143.79 euros.

That leaves us with the following calculation:

(960.78 + 960.78 + 1,143.79) / 90 days = 34.06 euros per day

To obtain the total monthly regulatory base for that quarter:
34.06 x 30 days = 1,012.8 euros.

The same formula could be used to obtain the average for years or longer periods of time as required in the percentages and conditions of each benefit due to temporary disability, retirement, paternity or maternity leave, etc.

Other examples of regulatory basis

As we say, Each benefit has its own conditions to calculate the regulatory base, so, although the contribution base is the same, the regulatory base of a benefit for temporary disability is different from that for retirement, unemployment, paternity leave or to calculate a permanent disability.

Regulatory basis for temporary disability

We have already seen how to obtain the daily regulatory base that will serve as a basis for applying the percentages of each assumption. In the case of temporary disability benefits, it was derived from common contingencies (common illness) Social Security establishes a regulatory base from 60% of the daily regulatory base of the month prior to the leave for days 4 and 20 of the disability. From the 21st onwards, the regulatory base will be 75%.

If the reason for the temporary disability is an accident or work-related illness, the regulatory base that applies will be 75% from the first day.

Regulatory basis for maternity or paternity benefits

As happens due to temporary disability, in the case of maternity or paternity leavethe regulation base is calculated on the basis of the contribution for common contingencies of the month prior to the beginning of the permit and is divided by the days to which that contribution refers.

However, instead of applying a reduction to that base, the 100% of the regulatory base during the entire duration of the permit. That is, it is not penalized as it happens in other cases.

Regulatory basis for permanent disability

Calculate the regulatory base for a permanent disability It is much more complex since it depends on several factors such as the age of the affected employee, the type of disability (whether it is total or absolute), the degree of disability, the time contributed, etc.

As a general rule, it is calculated by dividing the contribution bases for the last 96 months by 112, to which a percentage starting from 50% is applied for workers over 52 years of age and under 65 years of age.

However, different variables are applied to this base depending on the type of disability and its cause.

Regulatory basis in retirement pension

To access a contributory retirement pensionfirst the regulatory base is calculated by averaging the contribution bases of the last 25 years (300 months) and dividing by 350. In 2026, a new calculation method will begin to be introduced that allows more years to be included and the worst years to be eliminated to favor the worker.

A percentage is applied to that figure that depends on the years of contributions. For example, such and as indicated in Iberleywith 15 years of contributions you have access to 50% of the regulatory base, and it reaches 100% of the regulatory base if you have contributed for 38 years and 10 months or more when you reach age 65.

If this retirement is anticipated, they apply some reduction percentages on the regulatory basis depending on the time that retirement is anticipated and the time contributed.

Regulatory basis for unemployment benefits

As indicated the official information of Social Security, the regulatory base for unemployment benefit is obtained as the average of the contribution bases of the last 180 days (six months) worked before termination.

From that figure, a regulatory base of 70% is calculated during the first six months of unemployment. From day 181 to the end of the benefit (with a maximum of 24 months), the regulatory base is reduced to 60%.

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