HME/MEF — Minimum Equivalent Fees
What is MEF?
Honorarios Mínimos Equivalentes (HME) — in English, Minimum Equivalent Fees (MEF) — is a proposal to establish a minimum remuneration floor for self-employed professionals (architects, engineers, consultants, etc.), based on the constitutional principle of non-discrimination.
The concept holds that:
A self-employed professional should be able to earn, at a minimum, the equivalent cost of what it would cost an employer to hire an employed professional with the same competencies.
Important precision: “equivalence” does not mean identical gross income between the self-employed professional and the employee. The MEF floor compares the equivalent cost for the party commissioning the work — what it would cost to employ a professional with the same qualification, including the employer’s social security contribution — with what the self-employed professional invoices, once the operating costs inherent to self-employment (structure, insurance, one’s own social security contribution) that an employee does not bear directly are covered. It is, therefore, comparable remuneration after those costs, not payroll equality.
This proposal is compatible with free competition (TFEU art. 101) when it is grounded in non-discrimination (Spanish Constitution arts. 14 and 35) and implemented through state regulation; possibly, with technical collaboration or delegated management by professional associations under public supervision, but never through autonomous association-set fee scales.
Why does it matter?
Self-employed professionals in Spain face a significant pay gap compared to employees with equal qualifications. Unlike a salary, there is no regulatory framework that ensures:
- Recovery of real costs (continuing education, insurance, social security contributions)
- Minimum industrial profit on costs (a profit component)
- Protection against dumping (unfair competition through predatory pricing)
The MEF proposal seeks to close this gap through:
- Constitutional grounding: the principle of non-discrimination (arts. 14 and 35 of the Spanish Constitution) requires that the same work receive equivalent remuneration, regardless of the type of contract under which it is performed. This is the foundation of the proposal, formally raised since March 2021, not an imported model.
- Cost analysis: breakdown of direct cost + overheads + industrial margin, by analogy with public procurement regulation (RGLCAP).
- Comparative validation: once formulated, the proposal has been checked against models from other Member States — the calculation method of the Italian Decree DM 17/6/2016 and, more recently, the Italian Law 49/2023 on equo compenso — which confirm that equivalent formulas are legally viable in the EU, without being the origin of the approach.
- Legislative implementation: concrete reform proposals, via state law or public procurement oversight; possibly, with technical collaboration or delegated management by professional associations under public supervision, but never through autonomous association-set fee scales.
Publications
Academic article:
Ricardo Alvira, Minimum Equivalent Fees. A proposal to re-establish income equality for equivalent work, Italian Labour Law e-Journal, Issue 1, Vol. 19 (2026), ISSN 1561-8048.
Origin document (1st Congress of Architects of Madrid, COAM, 2025):
Ricardo Alvira Baeza, Honorarios Mínimos Profesionales. Un elefante (legislativo) en la habitación [“Minimum professional fees: a (legislative) elephant in the room”], Proceedings of the 1st Congress of Architects of Madrid (COAM), 2025.
Formal submissions
The proposal has been formally raised before various administrations since 2021, including a judicial route already resolved (2021–2024, Audiencia Nacional) and a new institutional route opened in 2026, focused on updating the criteria of the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC):
- Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business — petition filed in March 2026 (registry no. REGAGE26e00024522458), currently awaiting a response.
- Spanish Ombudsman (Defensor del Pueblo) — new complaint filed on 09/06/2026, pending resolution (joinder requested with case file no. 26010099, closed on 04/06/2026 without intervention).
On this site you will find
📄 Publications
Academic article, COAM 2025 proceedings, related work.
⚖️ Legal Framework
Analysis of the Spanish Constitution, EU Directives, CJEU case law, legal doctrine.
🔧 Tools
An evaluator of indicators of pay discrimination and an estimator of a reference fee band.
📢 Advocacy
Legislative proposals, formal submissions, complete timeline of proceedings.
📰 News
Regulatory, case-law and institutional developments relevant to HME/MEF.
📚 Resources
Glossary, FAQ, full bibliography, useful links.
Frequently asked questions
Is this a prohibited “professional-association tariff”? No. A professional-association tariff (a fee set and disseminated by the professional association itself) is prohibited on competition-law grounds. HME is a legislative floor derived from the principle of non-discrimination and a cost analysis, implemented by the State, not by professional associations.
Does it violate EU law? No. The proposal is grounded in Directive 2006/123/EC (services), art. 15, which allows competition restrictions justified on non-discrimination grounds. CJEU case law supports this approach (C-94/04, C-413/13, C-19/23) and, at the same time, marks its limits: C-377/17 (the HOAI case) declared the mandatory German fee scales contrary to EU law for failing the necessity-and-proportionality test — the very test HME aims to pass by grounding itself in non-discrimination (arts. 14 and 35 of the Spanish Constitution) and being regulated by the State, not by professional associations.
What is the proposal based on? On the constitutional principle of non-discrimination (arts. 14 and 35 of the Spanish Constitution): equal work, equivalent remuneration, regardless of whether the contract is one of employment or of services. This approach was formulated in March 2021. It is not based on any foreign model; the Italian cases (DM 17/6/2016 for the calculation method, and Law 49/2023 on equo compenso for comparative validation) were incorporated afterwards, as evidence that equivalent formulas already work in other EU Member States.
Contact
Questions, comments or collaboration proposals?
Last updated: September 2026 Site version: 1.2-advocacy
This is a translation for reference; the original, authoritative version of this site is in Spanish.