Fee band estimator
This tool answers a different question from the pay-discrimination evaluator: instead of comparing an amount already offered or awarded, it calculates in advance a band of objective references for a commission to draft a project and/or supervise a site, based on its PEM (construction budget), its building type and its scope.
Just as the collectively-bargained salary is public information, a self-employed professional’s equivalent remuneration should be openly consultable. Hiding that figure perpetuates the information asymmetry that HME/MEF wants to correct. Publishing a band of cost and value references — open, with their origin documented and checkable by anyone — is not the same as a professional-association tariff: the case law (CJEU Cipolla, see Legal Framework) distinguishes by who sets the figure and how, not by whether the figure is public.
This is not a tariff, a fee scale, or a recommended fee. No professional is obliged to fall within the band or above it; it is a cost-and-value reference for reasoning about one’s own quote, with the origin of every input made explicit in the technical methodology.
What it calculates
The band runs from the MEF floor (the anti-discrimination minimum: what it would cost to hire an employee with the same qualification) up to the higher of two external value references:
| Reference | What it measures |
|---|---|
| MEF floor | Opportunity cost of self-employed–employee equivalence. Absolute minimum. |
| Cost floor | The practice’s real production cost (salary + overheads + industrial profit). |
| SEGIPSA (BOE 27/5/2015) | % of PEM that the Spanish General State Administration itself applies to its own commissioned work. |
| Italy (DM 17/6/2016) | A value-based fee model in force in the EU, cited as a comparative reference. |
Commission hours (HME) are estimated automatically using the same method as the pay-discrimination evaluator: the DM 17/6/2016 formula (CP = V·G·ΣQ·P) applied to the PEM, the chosen building type/complexity and scope.
Caveats
- It does not replace professional judgement about the specific commission, nor is it legal advice.
- No point on the band is a price to be charged: each professional sets their own fee freely, above or below any of these references, except for the MEF floor, which marks the anti-discrimination threshold.
- Monetary values should be updated periodically in line with CPI.
More information
Pay-discrimination evaluator → See the calculator’s technical methodology → See the full Legal Framework →
Last updated: September 2026