Spain's MEI pension levy climbs to 1% in 2027

According to 65ymas.com (30 August), Spanish take-home pay will shrink slightly from 2027, when the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI), a social contribution levied on employees, companies and the self-employed since 2023 to shore up pensions as the baby-boomers retire, rises from 0.90% of the contribution base to 1.00%. The outlet says this increase has been confirmed through a publication in the BOE, Spain's official gazette. Que.es, picked up via web search, reported the same change as official as early as 19 August.

OkDiario (24 August) breaks down who pays what: the employee share moves from 0.15% to 0.17% and the employer share from 0.75% to 0.83%, before the levy climbs again to 1.10% in 2028 and 1.20% in 2029, a rate held all the way to 2050. To make it concrete, OkDiario cites a worker on 35,000 euros gross a year, whose MEI contribution rises from 52.5 euros in 2026 to 59.5 in 2027. 65ymas.com works from smaller figures: on a 1,500 euro monthly salary the employee's share goes from 2.25 to 2.55 euros a month, and someone earning 25,000 euros gross a year pays roughly 5 euros more (from 37.5 to 42.5 euros).

El Blog Salmón (28 August) looks at the top of the scale, and here the numbers get slippery: its headline promises a loss of 104 euros a year for the highest salaries on the maximum base (5,101.20 euros a month in 2026), yet its own detailed calculation lands at 92 euros, a gap worth checking against Social Security before quoting either figure. The same outlet estimates the yearly impact at around 22 euros for someone on the minimum wage (1,221 euros a month), and quotes Social Security Minister Elma Saiz putting expected MEI revenue for 2026 at 5,298 million euros. Both 65ymas.com and OkDiario add the wider context: the MEI has brought the Social Security system 10,976 million euros since 2023, with that 2026 forecast running 20% above 2025.

Why now? Google Trends shows "nómina" climbing precisely as September pay approaches and readers check what will change. One detail no other outlet in this review flags: OkDiario notes that 2027 also brings a solidarity contribution on salaries above the maximum base, split into three brackets of 1.38%, 1.50% and 1.75%, citing Antonio Bonilla, a finance professor at EBF Business School. And 65ymas.com reminds readers that from 2027 the ordinary retirement age reaches 67 for anyone with fewer than 38 years and 6 months of contributions.

Sources : 65ymas.com, OkDiario, El Blog Salmón, que.es, Google Trends.