Working hours in Spain: limits, breaks and rest

How many hours is the working week in Spain?

Article 34.1 of the Workers' Statute (Estatuto de los Trabajadores) says working time is whatever is agreed in collective agreements or employment contracts, and sets the ceiling: forty hours of actual work per week, averaged over the year^[1]. So 40 hours is the legal maximum for ordinary working time, not a required figure: many collective agreements set a lower annual total.

«Averaged over the year» means a given week can exceed 40 hours if others are shorter, as long as the other limits (daily maximum, rest periods) are respected and the distribution is planned. A collective agreement or an agreement with worker representatives can distribute working time irregularly across the year; without one, the employer can distribute up to 10% of working time this way, with at least five days' notice to the employee^[1].

Working time is counted so that the employee is at their workstation at both the start and the end of the working day (art. 34.5)^[1].

Working-time limits at a glance

These are the general limits in the Workers' Statute. The applicable collective agreement can improve on them and, where the law allows, organise them differently, so always check your agreement.

Breaks and rest between working days

When a continuous working day exceeds six hours, there must be a break of at least 15 minutes. That break only counts as working time if the collective agreement or employment contract says so^[1]. For under-18s, the break is at least 30 minutes and applies once a continuous day exceeds four and a half hours^[1].

There must be at least 12 hours between the end of one working day and the start of the next^[1]. This rest applies even where the collective agreement allows days longer than nine hours: the law requires it «in all cases».

The Statute does not regulate the «split shift» (jornada partida) as such: what it sets is the daily limit, the break in a continuous day and the rest between days. How a midday interruption is organised depends on the collective agreement, the contract and the company's annual work calendar, which must be drawn up every year and displayed somewhere visible in each workplace (art. 34.6)^[1].

Overtime

Overtime is any hour worked above the maximum ordinary working time set under art. 34^[2]. The collective agreement, or failing that the individual contract, decides whether overtime is paid (never below the value of an ordinary hour) or compensated with paid time off. Without such an agreement, it must be compensated with time off within the following four months^[2].

• Cap: 80 overtime hours a year, reduced proportionally for working time below the company's standard. Hours compensated with time off within four months do not count towards the cap^[2].
• Emergencies: hours worked to prevent or repair accidents and extraordinary, urgent damage do not count towards the cap, although they are compensated as overtime^[2].
• Voluntary: unless agreed in the collective agreement or contract, within the annual cap^[2].
• Recording: for overtime purposes, working time is recorded day by day and totalled for each pay period, with a copy of the summary given with the payslip^[2].
• Night workers: employees classed as night workers cannot work overtime^[3].

Night work and shift work

Night work is work done between ten at night and six in the morning. A night worker is someone who normally works at least three hours of their daily working time in that period, or who is expected to work at least a third of their annual working time in it. Their working day cannot exceed eight hours on average over a 15-day reference period^[3].

Night work has specific pay set by collective bargaining, unless the salary already reflects that the work is by nature done at night or it has been agreed to compensate it with rest^[3]. In companies with continuous 24-hour processes, shift organisation must take rotation into account and nobody should be on nights for more than two consecutive weeks unless they volunteer^[3].

Weekly rest, public holidays and paid holiday

• Weekly rest: at least a day and a half uninterrupted, which can be accumulated over periods of up to 14 days; as a general rule, Saturday afternoon or Monday morning plus all of Sunday. Under-18s: two uninterrupted days^[4].
• Public holidays: paid and not made up later, with a maximum of 14 a year, two of them local^[4]. You can load them per workplace in your calendars.
• Paid holiday: whatever the collective agreement or contract sets, but never less than 30 calendar days, and it cannot be replaced by payment^[5]. Dates are agreed according to the collective agreement's planning, and employees must know them at least two months in advance^[5]. More in vacations.

Part-time working hours

For part-time contracts, working time «shall be recorded day by day and totalled monthly», and the employer must give the employee, together with the payslip, a summary of all hours worked that month, both ordinary and supplementary. If this obligation is not met, the contract is presumed to be full-time unless proven otherwise^[6].

Adapting working hours for work–life balance

Employees have the right to request adaptations to the length and distribution of their working time, its organisation and how work is performed (including remote work) to balance family and working life. Adaptations must be reasonable and proportionate to the needs of both the employee and the company (art. 34.8)^[1].

If the collective agreement does not regulate how this right is exercised, the employer must open a negotiation lasting no more than 15 days, and the request is presumed granted if there is no express, reasoned objection within that period. At the end, the employer states in writing whether it accepts, proposes an alternative or refuses, giving objective reasons in the last two cases^[1].

Recording working time is mandatory

All these limits are checked against the daily working-time record: the employer must record the exact start and end time of each employee's working day, keep the records for four years and make them available to staff, their representatives and the Labour Inspectorate (art. 34.9)^[1]. Breaching the rules on working time, rest or recording is a serious infringement under the LISOS^[8].

We cover it in detail, including fines and the status of the digital-recording reform, in our guide to Spain's time-recording law. To add up the hours of a week or month, use the hours-worked calculator.

What about the 37.5-hour week?

Status at 18 October 2026: not in force. The Government sent Congress a bill to cut the maximum working week to 37.5 hours (Bill 121/000058), which also changed working-time recording. Congress rejected it in the full-text debate in September 2025^[7].

That is why article 34.1 of the Statute still sets the maximum at 40 hours a week averaged over the year^[1]. Changing the maximum would require a new law passed by Parliament and published in the BOE. What can already happen today is that your collective agreement sets a shorter working week. We track developments on our 37.5-hour week page.