No matter how much contributions have been made, a contributory pension (retirement pension, permanent disability pension or widow’s pension, among others) cannot start above the maximum amount set each year by law, with some exceptions, and in 2026 that limit is 3,359.60 euros per month. In January 2027 it will grow more than the rest of the pensions, up to about 3,481 euros, although the extra will only be for the pensions caused that year (those whose causative event is in 2027, the date on which the right arises).
This is regulated by the thirty-ninth transitional provision of the General Social Security Law, included in the law for the pension reform of Royal Decree-Law 2/2023 (known as the “Escrivá reform”). Between 2025 and 2050, the increase in the maximum pension will be the revaluation by the CPI “plus an additional increase of 0.115 cumulative percentage points each year until 2050.”
With this rule, in 2025, the maximum rose by 2.915% (the general 2.8% plus the extra), to 3,267.60 euros. The following year it rose 2.815%, to 3,359.60 euros. In 2024, which was the last year in which there was no extra, the maximum had risen the same as the rest, that is, the CPI, so it was 3.8%, from 3,058.81 to 3,175.04 euros.
About 3,481 euros per month for pensions accrued in 2027
Contributory pensions grow according to the average CPI of the last twelve months ranging from December to November, as stated in article 58.2 of the General Social Security Law. In the absence of data for October and November, the average CPI stands at 3.33%, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), so, according to Funcas inflation estimates, the increase for 2027 would be 3.5%.
If the increase were 3.5%, the limit would rise by 3.615% and the maximum pension for 2027 would be 3,481 euros per month, 48,735 euros per year in 14 payments, approximately 121 euros more each month. This calculation by NoticiasTrabajo, with the data for 2024 and 2025, gives the official amounts for 2025 and 2026 with an error of two cents at most. Every tenth of the CPI moves the limit by around 3.4 euros per month.
| Pension limited to the maximum | 2026 (euros per month) | estimated 2027 (euros per month, approx.) | Rise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caused in 2027 | 3,359.60 (2026 cap) | 3,481 | 3.615% |
| Caused in 2026 | 3,359.60 | 3,477 | 3.5% |
| Caused in 2025 | 3,355.83 | 3,473 | 3.5% |
| Limited before 2025 | 3,352.07 | 3,469 | 3.5% |
The provisional revaluation will be known at the end of November, a few days after the pensioners receive the extraordinary pay, while the final data will be known on December 15. For the new cap to be applied, a rule will also be needed, since article 57 of the LGSS leaves it in the hands of the Budget Law and the 2023 accounts continue to be extended.
The most likely thing is that it will be approved by a government in office after the elections on November 29, as will the extra increase in minimum and non-contributory pensions.
Pensions limited before 2025 will be almost 12 euros below the new limit
Section 2 of the thirty-ninth transitional provision mandates revaluation of pensions accrued since 2025 according to article 58.2, with the CPI as the rest, and section 3 applies the same rule to those that were already limited to December 31, 2024.
This already happened in 2026, when Royal Decree 241/2026 increased pensions accrued before that year by 2.7% (article 6), without distinguishing those that were at the top, while the maximum of the new ones grew by 2.815%. For this reason, those who retired in 2025 with 3,267.60 euros now receive 3,355.83 and those who had their pension limited before, 3,352.07 euros.
With a revaluation of 3.5%, in 2027 the distance between the new ceiling and a limited pension before 2025 will be almost 12 euros per month (about 163 per year). Each year until 2050, the cap will add another 0.115 points that will only be the pensions earned in that year.
Whoever collects two pensions at the same time (for example, retirement and widowhood) cannot exceed with the sum the limit in force when the last one is caused and, from there, it also rises only with the CPI, according to article 57.
The maximum quote base rises 1.2 points more than the CPI
The thirty-eighth transitional provision adds each year, from 2024 to 2050, 1.2 points to the increase in the maximum contribution base (the highest monthly salary on which ordinary contributions are calculated). In 2026 it is 5,101.20 euros, according to article 2.1 of Order PJC/297/2026, and with a revaluation of 3.5% in 2027 it would be around 5,341 euros per month.
If we compare the two figures in a full year (the base is paid in 12 months and the pension is collected in 14 payments), the maximum in 2023 was equivalent to 79.4% of the maximum base (4,495.50 euros per month, according to Order PCM/74/2023), in 2026 it drops to 76.8% and in 2027 it would remain around 76%. The Government justified the extra in the preamble of Royal Decree-Law 2/2023 as the way to align the cap with the progressive increase in the maximum base from 2024.
With the same annual comparison, the economist Ángel de la Fuente calculated in a Fedea report from April 2023 that in 2050 the maximum pension would remain at 59.3% of the base, “a very considerable reduction in the degree of contributory of the system” (the relationship between what is contributed and what is collected).
Social Security removes the permanent disability of a welder because he can now work, his company declares him “unfit” to return and the court recognizes 33,888.82 euros if he is not reinstated
In 1986 he worked in a school, they denied him partial retirement due to a requirement that was not in the agreement and justice ended up agreeing with him
There are pensioners who receive more than the maximum pension and it is because, for example, they receive the supplement to reduce the gender gap or because they decide to delay their retirement age, which are outside this limit.