To reach the retirement age, the greatest concern of the workers is to know what the amount of their retirement pension will be. This doubt has more relevance when it comes to self -employed workersthat is, those who quote under the Special Regime of Autonomous Workers (RETA), since, according to the data of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations, their Retirement pension is usually lower than that of workers who quote under other regimes.
This is so, and if we look at the latest data published by Social Security, they show that while the Average retirement pension for an autonomous worker is at 1,004.49 eurosthat of the employed workers under the general regime is 1,658.55 euros. That is, a monthly difference of 654.06 euros or 9156.84 euros per year (in 14 payments). But what is this difference?
The main reason is that self -employed workers quote less, that is, they contribute less to the social security system. In fact, for this 2025, the Minimum contribution base of an autonomous is 653.59 euros (reduced part) or 950.98 euros (general table), while that of employees is established at 1,323 euros, in accordance with the PJC/281/2024 order (it can be consulted in this official state newsletter), although it is It foresees that this rise in the coming weeks.
Now, self -employed can quote for a higher base and in fact, the maximum base for this 2025 is 4,918.75 euros, but according to the annual 2023 report of the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy (it can be accessed through this link ), 86.6% of the self -employed choose to quote the minimum base or even for an additional 1.5% of this base. Not only that, but this same report indicates that 97.1% of the self -employed decide to increase their contribution base from 55 years.
This causes that if we quote less being autonomous, our pension will be less on the day of our retirement, since we have contributed less to the system. Pensions are like a piggy bank, in which both quoted years are taken into account as a contribution base of the last 25 years quoted, that is, the years between approximately 40 and 65 years. Because of this, what will be the retirement pension for an autonomous that quotes for the minimum base?
Calculate the retirement pension of an autonomous that lies by minimum
To calculate the retirement pension of an autonomous worker, the Social Security calculation method is applied, which takes into account the latest contribution bases and the total of quoted years, either as an autonomous or in several regimes. The first step is calculate the regulatory basewhich is obtained by dividing between 350 the contribution bases of the last 25 years, that is, the last 300 contribution bases.
Before this calculation, Social Security updates all contribution bases according to the CPI, except those corresponding to the last 24 months, which are kept at nominal value. Unlike rest of the regimes, in the reta you cannot include those known as contribution lagoons to replace in which for any circumstance I cannot be quoted.
With the regulatory base obtained, you have to know what percentage of the pension corresponds to the autonomous based on the total of years worked, although if you have quoted in several regimes for more than 15 years, in each one you can collect two retirement pensions, provided it complies With all the requirements. Continuing with the calculation, the freelancers who had quoted 15 yearswill be entitled to 50% of the regulatory base. From there, for each additional month, the percentage increases as follows:
- 0.21% Additional to the regulatory base for each of the first additional 49 months.
- 0.19% Additional for each of the following 209 months.
Following this calculation, the self -employed that Coticen for 36 years and 6 months or more will be entitled to 100% of the pensionwhich is not the same as having the right to the maximum pension.
In this way, if an autonomous that quotes his entire life for the minimum base (assuming that this is 965.03 euros) and that reaches 100% of the regulatory base, he would receive a pension of 827.16 euros per month (11,580, 24 euros per year). It must be said that, in the event that the pension is below the minimum pension, the autonomous worker may request the complement to minimums to ensure always charge the minimum pension, provided that it meets the requirements.