Pay register step by step for an SME in Spain: which data, how to calculate it and what happens with the gap

The pay register is the employment obligation most SMEs believe does not affect them and which, nevertheless, has applied to all of them since 14 April 2021: a company with three employees must have one just like a company with three hundred. It is required by Royal Decree 902/2020 on equal pay, the Labour Inspectorate asks for it together with the working-time record, and workers’ representatives have the right to consult it. The good news is that it is not a salary study: it is a table built from data the company already has in its payslips. This guide explains what it must contain, how it is calculated step by step, who may see it, what happens when the gap exceeds 25 % and how to produce it from the system instead of redoing it by hand every year.

What it is and who must keep it

Article 28.2 of the Workers’ Statute requires every company to keep a register with the average values of salaries, salary supplements and non-wage payments of its workforce, broken down by sex and distributed by professional groups, professional categories or jobs that are equal or of equal value. Royal Decree 902/2020 develops it and sets its content and procedure. It applies to all companies, regardless of size, and to the whole workforce, including management and senior positions.

It must not be confused with the pay audit, which only companies obliged to have an equality plan (50 or more workers) must carry out and which goes further: evaluation of jobs of equal value and a correction plan. The register is the starting point for both.

What it must contain

For each grouping of jobs and each sex, the register records the arithmetic mean and the median of what was actually received in the calendar year, separated into three blocks:

1. Base salary.
2. Salary supplements: seniority, night work, shift work, hazard, availability, incentives, commissions, extra payments and any other remuneration supplement.
3. Non-wage payments: subsistence allowances, mileage, transport allowance, compensation, Social Security benefits paid by the company and the like.

Each supplement and each payment is broken down by concept, not in a total, so that where the difference arises can be seen. Amounts are taken equated to full time: if a person works part time, their pay is scaled up to what would correspond to full time before averaging, so that differences reflect the value of the job and not the hours.

The reference period is, as a general rule, the calendar year, and the register must be updated when any of its elements changes substantially.

How jobs are grouped

Grouping is the most delicate decision, because comparisons only make sense if it is done well:

• If the collective agreement defines professional groups or categories, those are used.
• If the company has a job classification system, jobs that are equal or of equal value are grouped.
• A job is of equal value to another when the nature of the functions, the educational and professional conditions required and the factors strictly related to performance are equivalent, under article 28.1 of the Statute. Royal Decree 902/2020 refers to job evaluation with criteria of adequacy, completeness and objectivity.

In an SME the usual approach is to start from the agreement’s groups and, within each, distinguish jobs with clearly different functions. Groups with a single person or with people of only one sex are included anyway, even though no comparison is possible within them.

How to calculate it step by step

1. Export the year’s payroll by person and concept: base salary, each supplement and each non-wage payment, with sex, professional group, job and percentage of working time.
2. Equate to full time the pay of those who work part time or have not been there all year, with the same criterion for everyone, explained in the document.
3. Assign each person to their grouping of equal or equal-value jobs.
4. Calculate, per grouping and sex, the mean and the median of each block and each concept.
5. Calculate the difference between women and men in each grouping, as a percentage of men’s pay, for both the mean and the median.
6. Document the method: period, grouping criteria, treatment of part time and sources, so that whoever consults or inspects it understands how it was done.
7. Consult the workers’ representatives beforehand, as the royal decree requires, and keep a record.
8. Store it and update it every year or when the pay structure changes.

The Ministry of Labour publishes a pay register spreadsheet tool that serves as a reference format; what costs effort is not the format but having the data clean and grouped, and that is what an HR system with the workforce, jobs and payslips in order resolves in minutes.

Who may consult it

• Workers’ legal representatives have access to the full content of the register.
• If there is no representation, any worker may request access, but not to individualised data: the company provides them with the percentage differences between women and men in averaged pay, by concept and by grouping.
• The Labour Inspectorate may request it at any time, and does so increasingly often together with the working-time record.

Individual data are personal data: the register is drawn up with aggregates and access is limited to what the rule establishes.

What happens if the gap exceeds 25 %

Article 28.3 of the Workers’ Statute adds an obligation for companies with at least 50 workers: when the average pay of one sex is higher than that of the other by 25 % or more, taking the whole wage bill or the average of payments made, the company must include in the register a justification that the difference is due to reasons unrelated to sex. Below 50 there is no obligation to justify, but a large difference in a grouping is a signal worth analysing before someone else does.

Justifying is not explaining with adjectives: it is showing that the difference is due to seniority, to supplements linked to objective conditions of the job, to working hours or to measurable variables. If it cannot be justified, the next step is to correct it, and companies with an equality plan do so through the pay audit.

Frequent mistakes

• Thinking it does not apply because you have fewer than 50 workers. It applies to all.
• Grouping badly: comparing jobs that are not of equal value, or putting the whole workforce in a single group.
• Forgetting non-wage payments or giving a total without breaking down by concept.
• Not equating part time, which produces artificial differences in feminised sectors.
• Not consulting the representatives before drawing it up.
• Not updating it when supplements or the classification change.
• Doing it in a loose sheet nobody can find when the Inspectorate asks.

What penalties apply

Not keeping the pay register or keeping it incompletely is a serious infringement in employment relations under the Law on Infringements and Penalties in the Social Order, with fines of €751 to €7,500 depending on the grade. If the lack of a register conceals pay discrimination, the infringement is very serious, with much higher amounts, and the worker affected may claim the differences. We explain the full map of obligations by size in labour compliance for SMEs: 2026 guide.

How LapsoWork makes it easier

LapsoWork does not draw up the pay register for you, but it puts in one place the data it needs: the employee record with professional group, job and percentage of working time, the distributed and archived payslips per person and month, and the Excel export to build the table with the method described and update it every year in minutes. If your accountant calculates payroll, in outsourcing payroll or in-house software we explain how the division of tasks fits together.

Frequently asked questions

Which companies have to keep the pay register?

All of them, regardless of size, since 14 April 2021 under Royal Decree 902/2020 and article 28.2 of the Workers’ Statute. It includes the whole workforce, management too. The pay audit, by contrast, only binds companies with an equality plan, that is, from 50 workers.

What data does the pay register include?

The average values (arithmetic mean and median) of base salary, of each salary supplement and of each non-wage payment, broken down by sex and distributed by professional groups, categories or jobs of equal value, referring to the calendar year and equated to full time.

Can workers see the pay register?

Workers’ legal representatives access the full content. If there is no representation, any worker may request it and the company provides the percentage differences between women and men by concept and grouping, without individualised data.

What happens if the difference between men and women exceeds 25 %?

In companies with at least 50 workers, article 28.3 of the Statute requires including in the register a justification that the difference is due to reasons unrelated to sex. Below 50 there is no obligation to justify, but the difference is a signal worth analysing and, where appropriate, correcting.

How often must the pay register be updated?

The reference period is the calendar year, so the usual practice is to draw it up every year with the data of the closed financial year, and to update it when the pay structure or the job classification changes substantially.

Conclusion

The pay register is a mandatory table for all companies: mean and median by sex of base salary, supplements and non-wage payments, by groups or jobs of equal value, with prior consultation of the representatives and justification of the gap from 50 workers. What makes it easy or hard is having the workforce, jobs and payslips organised in the same system. If you want the next register to come out of an export, try LapsoWork free for 30 days.