Active retirement is a modality that makes collecting the retirement pension compatible with both part-time and full-time work, for both employed and self-employed workers. In the case of the self-employed who have hired a permanent worker, Social Security allows them to collect 75% of the pension on the first day compared to the 45% that begins with those who delayed their retirement for a year and work alone, although in no case do they collect the minimum supplement while they are still active.
This is stated in article 214.3 of the General Law of Social Security (it can be consulted at this link of the BOE and which, with the reform of Royal Decree-Law 11/2024, applies from April 1, 2025) where it states that the self-employed person must prove that “they have hired at least one permanent employee to carry out their own activity, with a minimum seniority of 18 months”, or hire a new one, also indefinite, who has not worked for him in the previous two years.
The rule also limits that 75% to those who let between one and three years pass from reaching the ordinary retirement age until they requested the pension. From the fourth year of delay, it moves to the general scale, which is already equal or higher.
Before this reform, the advantage was greater, since with Law 6/2017, the self-employed person with an employee received 100% of the pension. Social Security still pays this old modality to 15,383 retirees, according to the latest statistics from the INSS compared to the current 4,456 self-employed workers who collect the pension in this way, more than double that of a year before, with an average of 1,284.13 euros per month, and where they are already beginning to collect 75%. This is not the same as flexible retirement, since it has its own percentages.
The self-employed pension with and without an employee, according to the years of delay
With a retirement pension of 1,400 euros and based on the percentages of article 214, the difference between having or not having a permanent employee would be as follows during the first year in active retirement:
| Years of delay | With a permanent worker | Without worker |
|---|---|---|
| One | 75% (1,050 euros) | 45% (630 euros) |
| Two | 75% (1,050 euros) | 55% (770 euros) |
| Three | 75% (1,050 euros) | 65% (910 euros) |
| Four | 80% (1,120 euros) | 80% (1,120 euros) |
| Five or more | 100% (1,400 euros) | 100% (1,400 euros) |
In both cases, the percentage increases five points for every 12 consecutive months in active retirement, with a limit of 100%, and the increase begins to be collected on the first day of the following month. That is, the self-employed person who delayed his retirement for one year and supports his employee goes from 1,050 to 1,120 euros upon completing his first year working as a pensioner.
Section 2 of article 214 leaves out the minimum supplement, since the percentage is applied to the pension “including the maternity supplement or the gender gap supplement when received, and excluding, in any case, the minimum supplement”, and section 6 insists that one is not entitled to it as long as the pension is compatible with work.
The minimum supplement is the amount that is added to pensions that do not reach the legal minimum amount, and as of October 1, 2026, 997,826 retirement pensions were collecting it, 17.27% of retirement pensions (not counting those that come from a disability), according to data from the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration. In this way, the self-employed person who has a low pension loses it entirely while still active, and 75% is calculated on the pension without him.
Danny, a 66-year-old retiree who continued working in Belgium thinking about collecting a bonus of 33,000 euros in his pension: “In the end, I only received 8,172 euros in my account”
Starting in 2027, Social Security will allow retirees to collect 100% of their pension and work on their own without contributing with income of up to 18,004 euros per year.
When the business closes, “the full receipt of the pension” is reactivated, and since the exclusion only lasts while working, the supplement returns if applicable. What Social Security claims is the overcharge when the worker who justified the percentage does not exist, as happened to a Valencian hotelier who had to return 60,082.11 euros for charging 100% with an employee who actually depended on his company.