Employee social security in Portugal
The general-regime split of 11% for the worker and 23.75% for the employer, what enters the base, and what a contribution month does not guarantee.
If you are an employee in the general regime, social security on your pay is a pair of rates, not a single 34.75% taken from your bank account. You pay 11% of the relevant remuneration. The employer pays 23.75% of that same base. The 23.75% is a cost to the employer. It is not a deduction from your net. The split comes from the contributory-regimes code, the Código dos Regimes Contributivos, approved by Lei n.º 110/2009. The payslip guide shows where the 11% sits on the slip and where the 23.75% usually does not.
This is the ordinary private-sector case. Some sectors, including certain non-profits and a handful of very specific regimes, use a different employer rate. This page does not invent that list. If your employer is not an ordinary commercial employer, read the rate on the monthly declaration instead of assuming 23.75%. The worker's 11% is the general employee rate. It is not the freelancer rate.
€2,000 of relevant pay
Take €2,000 of remuneration that is fully inside the base: a simple gross, with no exempt meal allowance in the figure. Worker social security is €2,000 × 0.11 = €220.00. Employer social security is €2,000 × 0.2375 = €475.00. The employer's cash outlay for this gross, before any meal allowance, insurance or other cost, is €2,000 + €475 = €2,475. Your net starts from €2,000 − €220, and then IRS withholding comes off. The €475 never enters that subtraction.
| Worker | Employer | |
|---|---|---|
| Rate | 11% | 23.75% |
| On €2,000 | €220.00 | €475.00 |
| Leaves the worker's pay? | Yes | No |
| Cash the employer needs for this gross | — | €2,475.00 |
Scale the same rates to a year in which the base is €2,000 and both the holiday subsidy and the Christmas subsidy equal one month, with nothing else in the base. The year is €2,000 × 14 = €28,000. Worker contributions are €28,000 × 0.11 = €3,080. Employer contributions are €28,000 × 0.2375 = €6,650. Twelve times €2,000 would have produced a contributory year of €24,000, worker contributions of €2,640 and employer contributions of €5,700. The two subsidies are why the larger figures appear. How those subsidies are built is in the holiday and Christmas guide.
What is inside the base, and what stays out
Holiday pay and Christmas pay are inside the base. A duodécimo is inside the base. A lump subsidy is inside the base. An exempt meal allowance is outside the base. The taxable excess of a meal allowance is inside the base, and it is category A income for IRS as well.
Use the 22-day cash meal at €7.50 from the meal allowance guide. Gross meal pay is €165.00. The exempt part is €135.30. The excess is €29.70. Social security does not see the €135.30. It does see the €29.70. Worker contributions on that excess are €29.70 × 0.11 = €3.267. Employer contributions are €29.70 × 0.2375 = €7.05375. Add those products to the contributions on the salary base. Do not add 11% of the exempt €135.30. A card payment that stays at or under €10.455 a day contributes €0 on the meal line. A card day at €11.00 contributes on about €0.545, not on €11.
The SalarioBox employee estimate applies 11% to the monthly gross you type, and 23.75% as an employer cost on that same gross. It annualises with the 12 vs 14 control, so a €2,000 base with 14 selected becomes a €28,000 year before the simplified tax step described in the gross-to-net guide. It does not insert a second subsidy inside one displayed month. Meal pay is added back only up to €132 and is not split into an exempt part and a taxable excess. Do not read the tool as a declaration.
This is not the freelancer calculation
A self-employed person in the general regime does not pay 11% of the invoice. The usual service rule is 21.4% on 70% of the relevant revenue, with a cap linked to the IAS, and a different rate for some sole traders. Sales use a different percentage of revenue. None of that is an employee payslip. The freelancer social security guide is the page for 21.4% and 70%. The compare tool puts an employee sketch next to an independent sketch. It does not convert a contrato de trabalho into recibos verdes, and it does not move your acquired contributions from one regime to the other.
What the money is for, and who files it
Employee contributions, together with the employer's, finance the protections people actually use: sickness benefit, parenthood benefit, unemployment benefit, and invalidity and old-age pensions, among other payments in the system. Each of those has its own access rules. A qualifying period, the reason you stopped work, and the record of declared pay all matter. A month in which contributions were due is not automatically a month in which a benefit is payable. Do not read €220 deducted in March as proof that a sickness claim in April will be accepted.
Filing and paying are the employer's job. Each month the employer submits the declaração de remunerações and pays both shares. You should not be asked to send the 11% yourself while the contract is running. Your checks are the payslip (11% of the relevant base, with the exempt meal left out) and Segurança Social Direta, where the declared months and amounts should appear. If the slip deducts €220 and Direta does not show the month, the problem is the declaration, not a second tax. This page does not state the filing deadline. Use the date Segurança Social publishes for that month.
- Confirm the regime. General private-sector employee: 11% and 23.75%. Anything else: do not borrow these rates.
- Build the base. Salary, holiday subsidy, Christmas subsidy and meal excess in. Exempt meal out.
- Multiply. €2,000 × 0.11 = €220 for you. €2,000 × 0.2375 = €475 for the employer.
- Keep the €475 out of the net. The employer still has to pay it.
- Match the slip to Segurança Social Direta. A missing month is a declaration problem.
Frequently asked questions
Do I pay 34.75% of my salary?
No. 11% + 23.75% = 34.75% is the combined rate on the relevant base. You are deducted 11%. On €2,000 that is €220, not €695. The €475 employer share is real, and it is not taken from your net.
Does the €920 minimum already include the employer's 23.75%?
No. €920 is a pay figure. Employer social security sits on top of relevant pay. A worker on €920 in the general regime is deducted 11% of the relevant base, and the employer owes 23.75% as well. Meal allowance is still not part of the €920.
Are holiday and Christmas subsidies exempt from social security?
No. They are inside the base, whether paid as a lump or as duodécimos. On a €28,000 year of €2,000 × 14, worker contributions are €3,080 if that whole year is relevant remuneration. A within-limit meal allowance is the payment that stays outside.
I was deducted €220. Can I claim unemployment or sick pay for that month?
Not automatically. Sickness, parenthood, unemployment and pensions each have qualifying rules. A contribution month is evidence of declared work. It is not, by itself, a decision that a benefit is due.
Is this the same as 21.4% on 70%?
No. 21.4% on 70% of service revenue is a freelancer rule. An employee pays 11% of relevant remuneration, and the employer pays 23.75% on top. Use the freelancer guide and the compare tool if you are choosing between a contract and invoices. Do not put the employee rates on a green receipt.