From Mercadona's grip on the grocery aisle to Sunday trading rules that change at the regional border, here's the shopping landscape as it runs today.
What you're entitled to as an employee in Spain for 2026: minimum wage and nómina basics, contract types after the 2022 labor reform, working hours and mandatory time-tracking, sick leave, parental leave, and exactly what to do, and how fast, if you're dismissed.
Found a baja or gap on your padrón close to five years in Spain? What extranjería checks for larga duración and how to cover the gap in your file.
How much does it really cost to live in Spain in 2026? Beyond the numbers, we explore the retiree reality, working on Spanish salaries, hidden costs nobody mentions, and the transformation that happens when you stop counting euros and start living. Real budgets, real expat voices, honest warnings.
Business etiquette in Spain runs on relationships first and paperwork second, from the handshake that opens a meeting to the WhatsApp thread that actually gets things done. What changes by sector, region and generation, and what holds no matter which office you walk into.
Two companies touch every Spanish power bill: one owns the wires, and the other, the one you actually get to pick, sends it. Understanding that split explains almost everything else, from PVPC pricing to why lowering your potencia contratada is the easiest way to cut costs.
Our guides cover visas and residency, tax, healthcare, housing, work and everyday life here.
232,372 people have signed up to SpainExpat. Add your email and we'll tell you when a guide changes or a new one goes up.
Sign up
SpainExpat.com has been online since 2000. This is currently the 5th major version of the site.
Crafted by this expat in Spain. See sister properties: Expatriator – AI for Immigration and Spanglish AI Classifieds for Puerto Rico
Site content protected by Aposema and available for x402 AI licensing.
The logo takes its colours from the sky over Madrid. Weather data: © AEMET, Spain’s Agencia Estatal de Meteorología, with MET Norway as backup.
