Domestic worker Social Security in Portugal: how it works and what it costs

A special regime, mandatory from the first hour

Regular domestic work, cooking, cleaning, ironing, looking after children or elderly people in a family's home, has its own contribution regime in Portuguese Social Security, set out in articles 115 to 127 of the Contributory Code¹. The employer (the household) is required to register the worker and report the employment on the Social Security portal before the work starts, even for a few hours a week³.

Domestic work without contributions is undeclared work: it exposes the employer to fines and leaves the worker with no social protection at all, no paid sick leave, no paid parental leave and no time counting towards a pension. Estimate the figures for your case with the domestic worker Social Security calculator.

How contributions are calculated: the three 2026 values

Unlike a regular job, domestic-service contributions are not, by default, charged on the real salary. They are charged on a conventional remuneration indexed to the Social Support Index (IAS, €537.13 in 2026⁴):

The €3.10 hourly value is the one published by the Social Security Institute itself for 2026². Note: these values are used only to calculate contributions. What you pay the worker is a separate matter, agreed between the parties, and cannot fall below the minimum wage in proportion to the hours.

The 28.3% rate: who pays what

The conventional base carries a global rate of 28.3%: 18.9% borne by the employer and 9.4% by the worker¹. In practice, the employer delivers the total to Social Security and deducts the 9.4% from the pay.

An example with the official ISS figures²: 40 hours in a month give a base of 40 × €3.10 = €124.00. The employer pays €23.44, the worker has €11.66 deducted and the total delivered is €35.09. Each amount is rounded to the cent on the base, as in the official table, so the two shares can differ from the total by one cent.

The legal minimum: never fewer than 30 hours a month

For hourly-paid work there is a rule that surprises many employers: you can never declare fewer than 30 hours per month to each employer, even if less was worked that month (article 119(5) of the Code)¹. In 2026 that means a minimum base of €93.00 and a minimum contribution of €26.32 per month (€17.58 + €8.74).

Someone working in several households has that minimum in each household: four hours a week for three different families means three declarations of 30 hours, not one of 48. There is no upper limit: past 30, you declare the hours actually worked.

The real-salary option: dearer, but with unemployment cover

In a full-time monthly contract, the worker and the employer can agree in writing to charge contributions on the salary actually paid, at least the €920 national minimum wage in 2026⁵. Three conditions must be met¹:

• a written agreement or employment contract fixing the salary;
• a medical certificate of fitness for work;
• the worker being under 64 in 2026 (the limit of the Code's annex I, which rises by half a year each year until 65 in 2028).

The documents go to Social Security and the real-salary contributions start the following month³. The rate rises to 33.3% (22.3% employer + 11% worker), with two important gains in return:

1. Unemployment protection: only in this regime does a domestic worker qualify for unemployment benefit (article 118(2)).
2. Better benefits: sick pay, parental leave and the future pension become based on the true salary rather than the IAS.

On a €1,000 salary, the monthly contribution goes from €152.01 (conventional regime) to €333.00. That is more than double, but it is the difference between a contribution record built on €537.13 and one built on €1,000, with unemployment cover included.

Holiday and Christmas bonuses: two regimes, two rules

A domestic worker is entitled to 22 working days of holiday, a holiday bonus and a Christmas bonus, like any employee³. For Social Security, the rule depends on the regime¹:

• Conventional regime (hourly, daily or on the IAS): the holiday and Christmas bonuses pay no contributions, because they sit outside the conventional bases (article 48).
• Real-salary regime: the bonuses pay contributions at 33.3% in the month they are paid, just like the salary.

How and when to pay

The employer pays the contributions between the 10th and the 20th of the month after the one they refer to². There are several channels: the ATM (multibanco) (Social Security payments, domestic-service workers option, with the worker's NISS), Segurança Social Direta, MBWay or direct debit. The system computes the amount from the reported employment; the calculator tells you in advance how much you will pay and how it splits.

What this regime does not cover

Two costs sit outside the contributions and are often forgotten:

• work-accident insurance, mandatory for all domestic service and bought separately from an insurer;
• any IRS withholding on the salary, which follows the general category-A rules.

The domestic-service regime is also not the self-employed regime: someone who cleans houses as an independent activity with invoices contributes as a self-employed worker, not under domestic service. And the general regime for other employees has its own calculator, the Taxa Social Única one.