Spanish resignation notice calculator
How much notice your collective agreement requires, what can be deducted if you give less, and whether this exit keeps your unemployment benefit.
| Notice your agreement requires | 15 days |
| Notice you will give | 7 days |
| Days you are short | 8 days |
| Daily salary (monthly divided by 30) | €60.00 |
| Maximum the agreement allows to be deducted | €480.00 |
| Last day if you serve the notice | 16 October 2026 |
| Last day with the notice you give | 8 October 2026 |
- Article 49.1.d) of the Statute sets no period at all: it asks for «the notice laid down by collective agreements or by local custom». The fifteen days shown by default are the commonest practice, not the law.
- That deduction is authorised by your collective agreement, not by the Statute. Where the agreement does not provide for it, the employer has to claim damages and prove them.
- Fifteen days are in the Statute, in six articles: 12.4.e), 37.3, 41.3, 48, 49.1.c) and 53.1.c). None of them is the resignation, and two of them are the notice the employer owes you.
- The only exit notice with a number in the law is article 21.3: thirty days to end a full-dedication agreement, losing its supplement.
- If you signed a retention agreement for training the company paid for, article 21.4 entitles it to damages if you leave before the term.
Put dates on your departure
Notice runs in calendar days from the day you hand in the letter, so weekends and public holidays count.
Gross, indicative figures. Your collective agreement may set a different notice period and improve any of these rights. This is not employment advice.
The notice period is a fact about your collective agreement, not a legal constant: the Statute sets none for a resignation.
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The notice period is not set by statute, and the fifteen days are not law
Article 49.1.d) of the Spanish Workers’ Statute says this and nothing more: «On the worker’s resignation, subject to the notice laid down by collective agreements or by local custom». There is no number, and the fallback is not another statute either: it is local custom, an unwritten source. Fifteen days are in the Statute, six times and in six different senses: giving up a supplementary-hours agreement (article 12.4.e), giving notice of paid leave (37.3), the notification the employer owes you when it substantially modifies your conditions (41.3), notifying that you are exercising a suspension right (48), denouncing a fixed-term contract longer than a year (49.1.c) and the notice the employer owes you in a dismissal on objective grounds (53.1.c). The last two explain where the belief comes from: one sits in the letter immediately above, inside the same article 49, and the other is the notice owed to you when you are dismissed. So the figure this tool shows by default is the commonest practice, not the law, and it has to be checked in your own agreement.
What can be deducted if you give less notice, and where that right comes from
What almost every collective agreement does is deduct from the final settlement the salary of the notice days that were not served: if your agreement asks for fifteen and you give seven, you are eight days short and the maximum deduction is eight days of salary. That right is not in the Statute, which merely defers to the agreement, so where the agreement does not provide for it the employer cannot simply deduct: it has to claim damages and prove them. The daily salary used here is the monthly figure divided by thirty, the same convention our final-settlement calculator uses so the two pages cannot contradict each other. And there is one case where the law does put a number on leaving: article 21.3 gives thirty days’ notice to end a full-dedication agreement, at the cost of its supplement. It is not the resignation notice, but it is the only one with a figure.
A resignation settlement: three parts, and no severance
When you leave of your own accord you are owed the same as anyone whose contract ends, minus one thing. You are owed the days worked in the final month, the holiday days you did not take, and the proportional part of any extra payments that were not prorated into your payslip. What you are not owed is severance, and the reason is not a stray rule: article 49 grants severance in letter c), which gives twelve days of salary per year to someone whose fixed-term contract ends, and in letter g), which gives one month on the employer’s death, retirement or incapacity. In letter d), the resignation, it grants none. That silence inside a list that does pay twice is what makes the answer zero, and one article settles it. Article 49.2 adds a practical safeguard: the employer must attach a proposed settlement document, and you may ask for a workers’ representative to be present when you sign the receipt.
Resigning gives no benefit, except in four cases the law names by article
Article 267.2.a) of the Spanish Social Security Act is explicit: a person is not in a legal situation of unemployment where they «leave work voluntarily, except as provided in paragraph 1.a) 5». And that paragraph 5 is a list closed by article number: «On voluntary termination by the worker, in the cases provided for in articles 40, 41.3, 49.1.m) and 50 of the consolidated text of the Workers’ Statute». Those are a geographic transfer, a substantial modification of working conditions, the departure of a victim of gender or sexual violence, and termination for just cause. Note that it names article 41.3 and not article 41: of that article’s eight paragraphs, only the third gives the right to end the contract, and only that one falls inside the exception. Outside that list, leaving on your own initiative means no benefit, however well founded the decision was.
The same rate with two different caps, and ninety days between them
Two of those four routes pay severance, and both pay twenty days of salary per year of service, so they look identical. They are not, because their caps differ: article 40 caps at twelve months and article 41.3 at nine. With little service there is no difference, because neither cap bites yet. With twenty years of service and a gross annual salary of €25,200, leaving under article 40 is 360 days of salary and €24,854.79, and leaving under article 41.3 is 270 days and €18,641.10: ninety days of salary and €6,213.69 apart, on the same pay, the same service and the same rate. The only thing that changes is which of the two articles the departure rests on. The third route with money is article 50, whose paragraph 2 refers to «the severance laid down for unfair dismissal», which article 56.1 sets at thirty-three days per year capped at twenty-four months, and which is the only one of the three you have to win in court.
Unpaid wages have been quantified since April 2025
The commonest ground under article 50 is that the employer does not pay, or pays late, and until recently what stood there was a standard each court decided: «failure to pay or continued delays in paying the agreed salary». Final provision 26.1 of Organic Act 1/2025 added a paragraph with effect from 3 April 2025, and the law now says when a delay exists and when the ground is made out: there is a delay «where the date set for payment of the salary is exceeded by fifteen days», and the ground is made out where you are owed «three full months of salary within a period of one year, even if not consecutive, or where payment of the salary is late for six months, even if not consecutive». That «even if not consecutive» appears twice, and it is what stops an employer escaping by alternating a good month with a bad one. Any guide written before April 2025 describes a test that is no longer the law’s.
The trial period, and what resigning does not take away
Walking out during the trial period is not a resignation: article 14.2 allows the relationship to be ended «at either party’s instance while it runs», with no cause and no notice, so there are no days to serve and no deduction to make. But the effect on unemployment benefit depends on who ends it, and there the two answers are opposite. If you walk out, it is a voluntary departure and there is no benefit. If the employer ends it, article 267.1.a) 7 of the Social Security Act does treat it as a legal situation of unemployment, with a condition of its own: that the previous employment ended for one of these same reasons, or that three months have passed since it ended. And one thing resigning does not take from you: your contribution days. Article 269.1 computes the length of benefit on «the periods of contributed employment in the six years before the legal situation of unemployment», so what you have contributed is still there, waiting for the next time work ends in a way that does give an entitlement.
Worked example
A worked example with real numbers, and it is the state this calculator opens in. A worker with twenty years of service, €1,800 gross a month and €25,200 gross a year hands in the letter on 1 October 2026. Their collective agreement asks for fifteen days of notice and they can only give seven: they are eight days short, their daily salary is €60.00 and the maximum deduction the agreement authorises is €480.00. Their last working day would be 16 October if they served the notice, and it is 8 October with the notice they give. In the settlement they are owed twelve days of the month (€720.00) and ten days of untaken holiday (€600.00), so €1,320.00 gross, less the €480.00 of notice: €840.00 to be paid, and €0.00 of severance. Had the employer decided the same departure on objective grounds, severance would have been €24,854.79, and had the dismissal been declared unfair, €45,567.12. And on unemployment benefit: as an ordinary resignation, nothing. Had the same person left under article 40 because of a transfer, they would keep the benefit and receive €24,854.79; under article 41.3 because of a substantial modification, they would keep the benefit and receive €18,641.10. Same person, same pay, same service, and €6,213.69 between two articles that pay the same rate.
Frequently asked questions
How many days of notice must I give when I resign in Spain?
What can be deducted if I do not serve the notice?
Am I entitled to severance if I leave of my own accord?
Can I claim unemployment benefit if I resign?
What counts as «just cause» for leaving and keeping the benefit?
Do I lose the years I have contributed if I resign?
Must I give notice if I leave during the trial period?
What must my resignation letter say?
Can I be made to stay if I signed a retention agreement?
What happens to holiday days I have not taken?
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Sources
- Spanish Workers’ Statute (RDL 2/2015), article 49.1.d): a resignation ends the contract «subject to the notice laid down by collective agreements or by local custom», with no statutory period at all, and 49.2 obliges the employer to attach a proposed settlement · Spanish Official State Gazette
- Spanish Workers’ Statute, article 50: the just causes for a worker to seek termination, with the paragraph that quantifies late payment of wages from 3 April 2025, and the right to unfair-dismissal severance · Spanish Official State Gazette
- Spanish Workers’ Statute, articles 40 and 41: twenty days of salary per year capped at twelve months on a transfer, and the same twenty capped at nine months on a substantial modification under paragraph 3 · Spanish Official State Gazette
- Spanish Workers’ Statute, articles 14 and 21: withdrawal during the trial period at either party’s instance, and the thirty days to end a full-dedication agreement plus the damages entitlement under a retention agreement · Spanish Official State Gazette
- Spanish Workers’ Statute, article 56.1: the thirty-three days of salary per year capped at twenty-four months to which article 50.2 refers · Spanish Official State Gazette
- Spanish Social Security Act (RDL 8/2015), article 267: paragraph 2.a) excludes voluntary departure «except as provided in paragraph 1.a) 5», and that 5 names articles 40, 41.3, 49.1.m) and 50 of the Statute and nothing else · Spanish Official State Gazette
- Spanish Social Security Act, article 269.1: the length of benefit is computed on the periods contributed in the six years before the legal situation of unemployment, so resigning does not burn accumulated days · Spanish Official State Gazette
- Organic Act 1/2025, final provision 26.1: the reform that, with effect from 3 April 2025, quantified late payment of wages under article 50.1.b) of the Statute · Spanish Official State Gazette
Author: Thorben Rasmus Idel · Reviewed by: Nahar Geva · Last reviewed: