2025 Salary Scale for Poultry and Rabbit Slaughterhouses: What Companies Must Pay

Key data

Companies in the poultry and rabbit slaughterhouse sector have an immediate obligation: to review and correct all payrolls for the 2025 financial year. The Dirección General de Trabajo has published, through Resolución de 16 de marzo de 2026 (BOE-A-2026-7014), the definitive salary scale for 2025 under the sector's national collective agreement, with retroactive effect from January 1, 2025.

The delay between the entry into force and the publication is common in collective bargaining, but it does not exempt companies from their obligations. Any company that has paid wages below the values now established has accumulated a debt to its workers that must be settled.

What does this regulation establish?

The resolution registers and publishes the Minutes of approval of the definitive salary scale for 2025 under the national collective agreement for the poultry and rabbit slaughterhouse sector. Its content has two direct effects:

• It sets the definitive salary values for all professional categories and groups under the agreement for the 2025 financial year.
• It establishes retroactivity from January 1, 2025, which requires recalculating all payrolls for the year and paying any applicable differences.

National collective agreements are mandatory for all companies in the sector, regardless of their size, number of workers or legal form. Unilateral non-application is not possible without following the legally established procedure.

The published scale is definitive, meaning it replaces any provisional or estimated scale that companies may have applied during 2025 while awaiting the outcome of collective bargaining.

Economic and operational impact

The economic impact depends on the difference between the wages actually paid during 2025 and the values now set in the definitive scale. The greater that difference and the larger the workforce, the higher the regularisation cost will be.

Beyond the direct cost of salary differences, companies must also consider the impact on:

• Social Security contributions: retroactive salary differences also generate differences in contribution bases, resulting in additional employer contribution costs.
• Income tax withholdings (IRPF): it may be necessary to recalculate the withholdings applied during the year if the definitive salaries differ from the provisional ones.
• Administrative costs: reviewing and issuing supplementary payslips for all affected workers during the retroactive period.
• Risk of sanctions: non-compliance with the terms of the collective agreement may result in labour sanctions, in addition to individual claims from workers.

Who is affected?

This regulation directly affects:

• Companies in the poultry and rabbit slaughterhouse sector operating anywhere in the national territory, regardless of their size or number of employees.
• Workers in the sector covered by the national collective agreement, across all professional categories and groups.
• HR and administration departments responsible for payroll and contract management in these companies.
• Labour advisors and management consultancies providing services to companies in the sector.
• Executives and CFOs of companies in the sector who need to provision the cost of retroactive regularisation in their accounts.

Practical example

A poultry slaughterhouse company with 40 employees on its payroll that applied a provisional salary scale during 2025 that was lower than the one now published as definitive faces the following situation:

• It must calculate the difference between the provisional and definitive salary for each professional category and each month of 2025.
• It must issue supplementary payslips for those differences for each affected worker.
• It must also regularise the Social Security contributions corresponding to those differences, which involves submitting supplementary contribution documents.
• If any worker left the company during 2025, the company is still obliged to pay them the differences they are entitled to.

The HR department or labour management consultancy must initiate this process immediately, as the obligation is enforceable from the date of publication of the resolution.

What should companies do now?

1. Obtain the definitive salary scale published in the BOE (BOE-A-2026-7014) and identify the values corresponding to each professional category in their workforce.
2. Compare the wages paid during 2025 with the definitive values now published, month by month and worker by worker.
3. Calculate the retroactive salary differences from January 1, 2025 for each affected employee.
4. Issue and pay the supplementary payslips corresponding to those differences as soon as possible.
5. Regularise Social Security contributions arising from the salary differences, submitting the supplementary documentation to the Tesorería General.
6. Update employment contracts and payslips to reflect the new definitive salary values going forward.
7. Document the entire process to demonstrate compliance in the event of a labour inspection or worker claim.

Official source

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific decisions, please consult a qualified professional. Source: https://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-2026-7014