Self-employed workers receive 650 euros less in retirement than employees, even though they retire later

BarcelonaA report by the Labour, Economic and Social Council of Catalonia (CTESC) confirms that Catalan self-employed workers retire later and receive lower pensions than salaried employees. Specifically, while self-employed workers end their professional careers at 66.5 years of age –1.4 years later than the average–, their average retirement pension is 1,063 euros, which is 657 euros less (38.2%) than that of salaried employees, which is 1,720.6 euros.

Regarding the average of contributory pensions –which, among others, includes retirement, widowhood, and disability–, the difference between self-employed and salaried workers was 549.8 euros per month. According to the CTESC report, at the end of 2025, the average pension for the self-employed sector stood at 949.9 euros per month, compared to 1,499.7 euros for the general regime.

The gender gap is also significant: self-employed men received an average pension of 1,109.3 euros, compared to the 807.3 euros received by self-employed women, 27% less. For all these reasons, the organization indicates that the low contribution bases of the self-employed condition future pensions and calls for more protection in terms of retirement for this group.

A profile in transformation

The public body also detects a "transformation" in the profile of the self-employed worker. According to Social Security data collected by the CTESC, self-employment affiliations of foreign workers grew by 5.4% last year, which is equivalent to a rate five times higher than the total. Affiliations of native self-employed workers, on the other hand, remained stagnant and only rose by 0.2%.

Currently, 15.7% of the self-employed in Catalonia are foreigners and, of these, approximately two out of every three are of non-EU origin. By territory, the presence of foreigners is especially significant in certain areas, especially in metropolitan and coastal areas. 77% of foreign people affiliated with the RETA in Catalonia work in the Barcelona demarcation.

Female affiliations are also on the rise, although women represent 36.9% of RETA affiliations, while their weight in the total Catalan employment is 47.9%. During 2025, female affiliations have grown by 1.5%, above the 0.9% registered among men.

At a territorial level, women's participation shows significant differences, ranging between 30.6% in La Segarra and 40% in La Ribera d'Ebre. The CTESC considers that "this reality makes it necessary to incorporate a gender perspective transversally into measures to promote entrepreneurship and self-employment".

Increasingly tertiary-sector oriented

Another of the main changes outlined in the report is the progressive tertiarization of self-employment: little by little, the services sector is concentrating a larger share of RETA affiliations. Specifically, as the organization's data indicates, almost four out of every five self-employed workers—77.8%—focus their activity on services. Far behind are construction, with 12.4%; industry, with 6.2%; and agriculture, with 3.5%.

To understand its evolution, a decade ago 74.7% of self-employed workers were concentrated in the tertiary sector, more than three points lower than at present. In industry, on the other hand, is where the presence of self-employed workers has decreased the most: ten years ago, 8.5% were dedicated to it, which is equivalent to a 2.3-point difference.

During the last year, the weight of the self-employed in the total number of affiliations fell by one tenth, to 14.9% of the total. This decline is explained by the fact that the increase in self-employed workers, of 1.1%, was lower than the evolution of employees, of 2.1%. In total, at the end of 2025 there were 574,315 self-employed people affiliated with Social Security.