Social Security recognizes the right to a retirement pension for workers who have at least 15 years of contributions. However, with this minimum period you are only entitled to 50% of the regulatory base. The final amount of the pension depends, on the one hand, on this regulatory base and, on the other, on the total number of years of contributions, since the percentage that should be collected depends on them.
This is regulated by articles 205.1.b), 209 and 210.1 of the General Law of Social Securitywhich establish the minimum period required to access the benefit, the rules for calculating the regulatory base and the applicable percentage based on the contribution period.
To access the pension you must meet four conditions. The first is the generic deficiency, that is, having contributed for at least 15 years. Added to this is the specific deficiency, which requires that at least two of those years be included within the fifteen immediately preceding the causative event, in addition to being in a discharged status or assimilated to discharge and having reached the ordinary legal retirement age.
In 2026, the ordinary retirement age will be set at 66 years and 10 months, except for those who prove 38 years and 3 months or more of contributions, in which case they will be able to retire at age 65.
Right to 50% of the pension with 15 years of contributions
The amount of the pension depends on the regulatory base or, in other words, 100% of the pension to which one would be entitled based on the years of contributions. That is, the more years you have contributed, the higher the percentage will be.
In this way, with 15 years of contributions, which is the minimum to access the pension, you will be entitled to 50% of the regulatory base and, as we add months and years of contributions, this percentage will increase as follows:
- For each additional month of the next 49 months, an extra 0.21% of the regulatory base will be added
- After this, each additional month until month 209, an extra 0.19% will be added.
In such a way, with 36 years and six months of contributions, you will be entitled to 100%. Therefore, being younger can mean seeing a “cut” in the pension of up to 50%.
This is how the table would look depending on the years worked:
| Listed Years | Regulatory Base Percentage |
|---|---|
| 15 | 50% |
| 16 | 52.52% |
| 17 | 55.04% |
| 18 | 57.56% |
| 19 | 60.08% |
| 20 | 62.50% |
| 21 | 64.82% |
| 22 | 67.14% |
| 23 | 69.46% |
| 24 | 71.78% |
| 25 | 74.10% |
| 26 | 76.38% |
| 27 | 78.66% |
| 28 | 80.94% |
| 29 | 83.22% |
| 30 | 85.50% |
| 31 | 87.78% |
| 32 | 90.06% |
| 33 | 92.34% |
| 34 | 94.62% |
| 35 | 96.90% |
| 36 years and six months or more | 100% |
Keep in mind that these percentages are valid for 2026, since in 2027 they will change again and it will be necessary to have 37 years of contributions to be entitled to the full pension.
How much pension is left depending on the regulatory base
Knowing the regulatory basis, it is possible to determine what the future pension that the pensioner will receive will be. In the following table you can see approximately what the amount of the retirement pension would be with 15 years of contributions (in this table neither the inflation effect nor the minimum supplement is applied):
| Regulatory basis | Monthly pension | Annual pension |
|---|---|---|
| €1,200 | €600 | €8,400 |
| €1,300 | €650 | €9,100 |
| €1,400 | €700 | €9,800 |
| €1,500 | €750 | €10,500 |
| €1,600 | €800 | €11,200 |
| €1,700 | €850 | €11,900 |
| €1,800 | €900 | €12,600 |
| €1,900 | €950 | €13,300 |
| €2,000 | €1,000 | €14,000 |
| €2,100 | €1,050 | €14,700 |
| €2,200 | €1,100 | €15,400 |
For this reason, having 15 years of contributions entitles you to a contributory retirement pension, but you will only be entitled to 50% of the regulatory base.