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WORKING IN SPAIN

Is May 1st a public holiday in Spain?

Is Labour Day a public holiday across Spain? And do any Spanish regions have an extra day off on May 2nd? Here's what you need to know about May 1st in Spain, including a bit of history.

Published: 26 April 2023 10:30 CEST
Updated: 29 April 2023 14:47 CEST
Beach in Spain
Is May 1st a public holiday in Spain? Photo: Pau BARRENA / AFP

El Día del Trabajador or Labour Day in Spain is a public holiday in Spain’s 17 autonomous communities and is held on May 1st. 

In 2023, May 1st will fall on a Monday, meaning that you can take the opportunity to get away for a long weekend before summer.

It will be a holiday in all regions across Spain, so no matter where you live you will most likely have this day off. Schools, most businesses and shops will also be closed on this day. 

Those in Madrid will also have another holiday on May 2nd, which commemorates the day in 1808 when the population rose up against Napoleon’s troops in the Peninsula War.

READ MORE: What is ‘Dos de Mayo’ and why does Madrid celebrate it?

Each region in Spain has 12 public holidays to which each municipality must add two more non-working days for local celebrations. This means that in total, there are 14 public holidays a year in Spain that employees can benefit from.

READ ALSO: How to make the most of Spain’s public and regional holidays in 2023?

Why is May 1st a public holiday?

May 1st is a bank holiday in over 80 countries around the world and is also known as International Workers’ Day.  

It’s an iconic date in the United States, called Labour Day and commemorates a general strike for workers’ rights, known as the Haymarket Riot on May 1st 1889. It ended with the death of those who later became known as the ‘Chicago martyrs’.  

READ ALSO – Spain’s public and regional holidays in 2023: How to make the most of them

At the time, workers were expected to work long hours for low salaries, which in many cases did not cover basic needs. Children worked from the age of six, and the women worked at night to make ends meet.

In Europe, May 1st was traditionally associated with rural pagan festivals celebrating the arrival of spring, but over the years it has become more about workers and is now recognised for its association with the labour movement.

El Día del Trabajador began to be celebrated in Spain in 1889, but it only became a public holiday in 1931. 

In 1938, Spanish dictator Francisco Franco replaced it with the Fiesta de la Exaltación del Trabajo (The Day of Elation for Work or Praise for Work), considering that the former was too closely linked to his communist enemies. That meant that for almost two decades, Spanish workers didn’t have a day off on May 1st but rather on July 18th. 

It wasn’t until 1955 that the original Labour Day date returned to Spain as Pope Pío XII added it to the Catholic calendar to commemorate St. Joseph the Worker.

However, only in 1978 with the advent of democracy in Spain were work demonstrations allowed to take place on Labour Day. 

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HEALTH

How many hours do I have to work to get access to public healthcare in Spain?

A common question among those wanting to move to Spain is if they will have access to the Spanish public healthcare system even if they only work part time or a few hours a week.

Published: 23 April 2024 10:57 CEST
How many hours do I have to work to get access to public healthcare in Spain?

In order to understand the answer to this question, you need to be aware of several rules on who has the right to public healthcare in Spain. 

In Spain, you have the right to access public healthcare under the following circumstances:

  • You are an employee or self-employed and are affiliated and registered with the social security system
  • You receive Spain’s state pension
  • You are the recipient of benefits, including unemployment benefits or subsidies.
  • You have exhausted your unemployment benefit or subsidy or other benefits of a similar nature and are unemployed and residing in Spain
  • Children under the age of 15
  • Students under the age of 26

You also have the right to healthcare if your spouse pays into the social security system or if you’re pregnant.

READ ALSO: Does permanent residency in Spain equal free public healthcare?

But what happens if you are an employee, but you only work part-time, does the number of hours you work affect whether you have the right to public healthcare coverage?

Even if you work part-time (or media jornada in Spanish), you will still be paying into the social security system automatically – part of it from your salary and part of it from your employer.

Therefore you will be affiliated in the social security system as in point one above. 

According to stats from Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE), a total of 6.6 percent of men in Spain in 2022 worked part-time and 21.6 percent of women. In September 2023, there were 2.9 million part-time employees in the country.

As far as social security is concerned, those who work part-time benefit the same as those working full-time when it comes to national healthcare, regardless of the length of their day. Part-time contributions count as one full day when it comes to paying social security.

READ ALSO: What to be aware of before accepting a part-time job in Spain

This rule, equating part-time work to full-time work was brought into force on October 1st 2023 in order to try and help reduce the gender pay gap in Spain, but was designed with the pension system in mind rather than national health coverage.

The advantage is that it also benefits those who want to work part-time and still be able to access healthcare. Even before this was brought into force, however, those working part-time and paying social security were still covered. 

All this means that there isn’t a specific number of hours you must work in order to be able to be covered under the Spanish healthcare system, and as long as you’re paying social security or fall into one of the categories above, you will be able to benefit from it.

Remember that if you’re not employed or self-employed in Spain and don’t have a spouse who is either, then you may not be covered.

To get around this you can either join a programme such as the S1 scheme for British pensioners or pay the convenio especial in order to benefit from public healthcare. For this, you will pay a monthly fee of €60 if you are under 65 and €157 if you are over 65. 

If none of these options are available to you or the requirements of your visa say so, then it’s necessary to get private health insurance instead.

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