How much of my salary can be attached?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

It depends on what you earn, because the law protects salaries in bands. The part of your pay that does not exceed the national minimum wage (“salario mínimo interprofesional”), which in 2026 is 1.221 euros a month, cannot be attached. Of anything above that figure, a percentage is attached that starts at 30 % and rises in bands up to 90 %. Everything is calculated on net pay, after deducting income tax withheld and social security contributions. If you earn the minimum wage or less, nothing can be attached, unless the debt is maintenance or, in some cases, the compensatory pension (“pensión compensatoria”) following a separation or a divorce. The 2026 scale The “Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil”, Spain's Civil Procedure Act, does not set a fixed amount but a scale that uses the national minimum wage as its yardstick. The Spanish Government has set it for 2026 at 1.221 euros a month. With that figure, each band of your monthly net pay is attached as follows: Up to 1.221 euros, nothing. From 1.221 to 2.442 euros, 30 %. From 2.442 to 3.663 euros, 50 %. From 3.663 to 4.884 euros, 60 %. From 4.884 to 6.105 euros, 75 %. Anything above 6.105 euros, 90 %. Each percentage applies only to the part of the salary that falls within its band. With net pay of 1.800 euros, for example, 173,70 euros a month can be attached, 30 % of the 579 euros above the minimum wage. With 3.000 euros net, 645,30 euros, made up of 366,30 from the 30 % band and 279 from the 50 % band. The same scale applies to pensions and to the income of the self-employed. In practice, the court orders the employer to withhold the attachable part every month and pay it into the court's account. Extra payments In 2022 the “Tribunal Supremo”, Spain's Supreme Court, held, in a case where the “Seguridad Social”, the Spanish social security system, had attached a pension, that the protected part is calculated on the minimum wage for the whole year, which includes the extra payments (“pagas extra”, the additional monthly payments in a Spanish salary). On that view, an extra payment is treated as one more salary payment, with its own protected part. In the month in which it is paid, the protected part doubles to 2.442 euros. If the extra payments are spread across each month's pay, the protected part would be the annual minimum wage divided by twelve, 1.424,50 euros a month. The judgment comes from the chamber that reviews attachments by public authorities, but its reasoning can also be relied on before the court. What can change the calculation Some rules raise or lower the amount attached: If you receive more than one income, such as two salaries or a salary and a pension, they are added together and the protected part is deducted only once. If you are married under a community-property regime, such as the “sociedad de gananciales”, the most common in most of the rest of Spain, both spouses' salaries may also be added together. If your marriage is governed by Catalan law, the normal regime is separation of property, under which they are not added together. If you have family dependants, the court clerk (“letrado de la Administración de Justicia”), who is in charge of the enforcement at the court, can reduce the 30, 50, 60 and 75 % rates by between 10 and 15 %. If the debt is maintenance, such as child maintenance, the scale does not apply and the judge decides how much is attached, even if the debtor earns the minimum wage. The same may happen with the compensatory pension that one spouse pays the other after separation or divorce, if the person receiving it asks for this and shows that they need it.