Ministers who leave the Government are entitled to a monthly payment of around 5,728 euros gross for a maximum of two years, designed to cover the time it takes them to return to working life. Óscar Puente, who announced his resignation as Minister of Transport before the Permanent Deputation this Tuesday, November 3, is entitled to that payment in its maximum amount, since he had been in office since November 21, 2023, almost three years, and the law limits it to 24 monthly payments.
The rule that regulates it is more than forty years old, since Law 74/1980 on General State Budgets for 1981 (available at this BOE link) establishes that those who cease as ministers will receive, “starting from the month following the termination, and for a period equal to that for which they would have held the position, without being able to receive more than twenty-four monthly payments,” a monthly compensatory pension equal to one-twelfth of the 80% of the position’s remuneration.
How much will Óscar Puente earn each month
The salary of a minister was 84,650.52 euros gross in 2025, according to data published on the Government’s Transparency Portal, and in 2026 it has increased by 1.5%, the same percentage as the rest of the public sector, in application of article 2 of Royal Decree-Law 14/2025. This leaves the remuneration of the position at 85,920.28 euros per year.
In this way, 80% of that amount is 68,736.22 euros per year, which spread over twelve months gives 5,728.02 gross euros per month. If he collects them during the 24 months, the total amounts to 137,472.44 euros, a figure that could still grow somewhat, because the law calculates the pay on the salary of the position that is in force at all times and not on that of the day of resignation (it would rise with the extra 0.5% that the decree provides if the 2026 CPI reaches 1.5% or with a rise in senior positions in 2027).
This salary should not be confused with the 108,111.34 euros per year that appear on the salary sheet. Newtral Transparentiasince to his salary as a minister, which was 77,831.44 euros in 2025 (below the 84,650.52 for the position, without the Transparency Portal explaining the reason), we must add 30,279.90 euros that he receives from Congress (2,162.85 euros per month in 14 payments) for the expenses of his activity as a deputy, so it is not his money as such and is not taken into account to calculate the former minister’s pay.
Nor does it come without conditions, because Law 3/2015 of senior officials says in its article 7 that this compensation is incompatible with “any remuneration charged to the Budgets of the Public Administrations”, with any salary from a private company and with the retirement pension. Puente has 15 business days from when the incompatibility occurs to communicate in writing to the Conflict of Interest Office what he chooses and, if he keeps the pay, he will not be able to carry out any paid activity in those two years, even if he waives payment for it.
Why does he lose his deputy’s compensation?
Puente was elected deputy for Valladolid in the 2023 elections and has announced that he will not be on the PSOE lists on November 29. For that seat, the Parliamentary Pension Regulations of the Cortes would give him the right to compensation for termination of one month of the constitutional allocation for each year of mandate, with a minimum of two years in office. With more than three years in office, three monthly payments of 3,366.99 euros would correspond to him, the amount of the allocation in 2026 according to Congress itself, that is, 10,100.97 euros paid month by month.
However, article 14.2 of these regulations declares it incompatible with the receipt of “any remuneration, salary, salary, pension, allowance, compensation or perception of any nature, whether public or private.” The former minister’s pay is on that list, so if Puente keeps the 137,472 euros from the Government, he renounces the 10,100 from Congress. It is a different aid from the single transition payment that the 213 deputies who ceased to be with the dissolution of the Cortes could request.
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Pay can be refused, and several former ministers have done so. According to The SpanishMiquel Iceta, Ione Belarra and Pilar Llop resigned from it when they left the Government, while Alberto Garzón and Irene Montero accepted it and Pablo Iglesias received it for only a few months, until he started working in the press and radio.