Employee or s.p.? What the €2–3/hour premium actually costs a posted welder in 2026

A Slovenian s.p. (samostojni podjetnik — a sole trader) does not get a cheaper month just because the project paused. The contribution bill arrives every month.

From 1 March 2026, the minimum contribution base for a full-time Slovenian s.p. is €1,521.62 per month, calculated as 60% of the 2025 average gross wage of €2,536.03. This figure comes from accounting-firm sources for 2026, not from an official FURS page, so verify it with FURS before you rely on it.

On that base, the minimum monthly contribution is approximately €651.04 from March 2026 — over €7,800 a year before income tax. Add the flat obligatory health contribution of €39.36 per month from 1 March 2026, and the fixed floor is about €690.40 before income tax. Income tax is separate and depends on your personal situation and tax method.

The example below uses an illustrative €18.00/hour employee rate and a €21.00/hour s.p. rate at 176 hours a month.

This table cannot calculate which option pays more net: employee payroll deductions and income tax under either option are not included.

Every figure in this table is illustrative for 2026; verify current rates with FURS and ZZZS.

The arithmetic is plain. The s.p. premium is €3,696 minus €3,168, so €528 a month. The mandatory contribution floor is €690.40. At these illustrative rates, the €528 monthly invoicing difference is less than the €690.40 minimum s.p. contribution floor. This is not an employee-versus-s.p. net-pay comparison: employee payroll deductions and income tax under either option are not calculated here.

That is before income tax and before any paid holiday, sick leave, or downtime. It is also before you lose a month of income between projects.

Contributions are due by the 20th of the month for the previous month and must be paid every month even if the business earned nothing that month. Payment cannot be suspended. That is what makes a short single-project s.p. expensive: the higher rate has to cover the fixed monthly bill during the gaps as well as the working months.

The employment route trades the headline premium for a different guarantee: legal payroll, withholding, and a cleaner continuation of cover when the project changes. For more on what legal payroll protects, read Why legal payroll protects both companies and workers.

Limitation: This worksheet does not include German or Norwegian income-tax, registration, or invoicing obligations. Before accepting an s.p. offer, ask the agency in writing which host-country registration and tax obligations apply to this project and confirm them with the relevant host-country tax authority.

The s.p. contributions are not just a tax. They fund compulsory health insurance, compulsory pension and disability insurance, parental protection, and unemployment insurance. They are insurance payments, and pension years accrue on paid pension and disability insurance (PIZ) contributions.

As an s.p., a month with no income still requires the minimum payment to keep the year counting. If you skip or cannot suspend a month, the contributions still fall due by the 20th of the following month. Pay them, and the PIZ portion counts. Stop paying, and the year does not keep filling in.

As an employee, the contributions are withheld and reported through payroll. The employment route does not give you a free pension year; it just takes the monthly obligation out of your hands and keeps it running while the contract lasts.

A posting does not automatically cost you pension years under either route. What matters is that the contributions were actually paid. The social-security timeline runs separately from the labour-law rules on site, which is why the two clocks have to be tracked together. For that distinction, see The Two Clocks of EU Posting: Labor Law and Social Security.

As an employee, the employer pays the health-related contributions through payroll during the employment. There is no separate monthly health bill for you to manage.

As an s.p., you pay the flat obligatory health contribution every month, including months with no income. The flat obligatory health contribution (OZP) is €39.36 per month from 1 March 2026. It was €37.17 per month from 1 March 2025; the two figures are consecutive annual values of the same indexed flat amount. ZZZS, the Slovenian health insurance institute, confirms a 2.00% long-term-care contribution rate for self-employed persons for 2026.

For the time abroad, the A1/S1 system keeps you and your family covered in the host country. The S1 form (formerly E106) from the Slovenian healthcare authority entitles you and your family to healthcare during the stay abroad. The A1 proves which country's social security system applies; the S1 is the document that lets your family access healthcare while you are there.

A posted worker is an employee sent by their employer to work temporarily in another EU/EEA country while remaining under the home country's social security system. An A1 certificate is the document that proves which country's social security legislation applies to you while you work abroad.

Regulation (EC) 883/2004 coordinates EU social security systems and applies for the EEA and Switzerland. A1 certificates are issued mainly to posted workers, to self-employed persons under Article 12 of Regulation (EC) 883/2004, and to persons working in two or more Member States under Article 13.

The two routes are different.

No processing times or fees are stated here.

For an employee, worker placements at Evroproces run under the company's EU Posted Workers compliance model — the framework of Directive 96/71/EC — with A1 certificates documenting posted workers' social security coverage. For employers, Evroproces handles the posting paperwork: employment contracts, A1 certificates, social insurance filings, and legal payroll, with an A1 certificate arranged before each posting. The full A1 application path is covered in Yes, You Need an A1 Certificate: EU 2026 Rules for Posted Workers.

For an s.p., the situation is different. A self-employed person who posts himself abroad for a few months remains covered by the home country's social security: he must apply for an A1 from the home authority before leaving, prove that the planned activities abroad are similar to those pursued at home, and the A1 proves coverage for up to two years. Whether your activity qualifies is decided by the Slovenian authority, not by the agency offering the higher rate.

This is where the two arrangements stop looking similar.

For the whole posting, a posted employee is entitled to the host country's basic employee-protection rules — minimum wage, working hours, minimum rest periods — set by statute and, where applicable, collective agreements. A collective agreement is a sector-wide deal between trade unions and employer organisations that sets minimum pay and conditions. The posted employee can also contact the host country's liaison office for posted workers if something goes wrong.

An s.p. is outside that employee-protection floor. You are not the employer's employee in the legal sense, so the floor does not attach to you. You have to verify your own accident and health cover before you leave. Do not assume the site insurance covers an invoicing contractor.

This section does not list injury-benefit amounts. The point is the boundary: employment carries the posted-worker protections, self-employment does not.

Credit decisions belong to the bank, and no outcome is guaranteed. A bank may look at your whole situation, your savings, your family, and the project length.

This page is general guidance. It is not legal advice, and it is not a guarantee of any bank outcome.

Bogus self-employment, or false self-employment, is an arrangement where someone invoices as self-employed but works under the control and direction of one employer, with the employer avoiding its employment obligations.

Slovenian law does not let the label decide. ZDR-1, the Employment Relationships Act, was adopted on 5 March 2013 and has been in force since 12 April 2013; Article 4 sets the elements of an employment relationship. A Slovenian administrative court ruling (UPRS, judgment I U 68/2017-14, 22 November 2018) says formal s.p. status and an employment relationship are not mutually exclusive. Whenever the work meets the elements of an employment relationship, a labour inspector can establish a violation of the second paragraph of Article 13 ZDR-1, and the court upheld the inspector's prohibition of the work.

A peer-reviewed analysis of Slovenian case law concludes that the worker's autonomy in organising working time is the paramount indicator of an employment relationship under Article 4 ZDR-1, while business integration and economic dependence carry no relevant weight. That is one scholarly analysis, not a binding court ruling, but it tells you which signal to weigh first.

After Slovenia's 2013 labour reform produced a measurable rise in self-employment and other labour forms at the expense of employment contracts, the Ministry of Labour's 2017 amendments empowered labour inspectors to compel an employer to convert an illegal contractor arrangement into an employment relationship.

Run these five questions before you sign. The first is the legal core; the rest are practical warning signs.

1. Can you choose your start and finish times, or does the agency set your shifts and require you to follow the site's daily schedule?
2. Can you send someone else to do the work, or must you personally show up every day?
3. Do you supply your own tools and protective equipment, or does the site provide everything?
4. Can you take on other clients during the assignment, or is this the only work you are allowed to touch?
5. If the project stops for two weeks, do you stop charging and carry the loss yourself, or does the agency keep paying you?

If you answered no to the first question, and the agency still calls you a contractor, treat the offer as a risk rather than a formality.

For more signals on the agency side, see Red flags and green flags when choosing a staffing agency.

Ask these four questions before you sign anything.

1. Who arranges the A1 certificate, and who pays the social contributions?
2. Do I pay any placement fee at any point?
3. What employment contract and social-security documentation will be in my hands before I leave?
4. If the project ends early, show me in writing what happens to my contract or invoice, pay already earned, notice, holiday pay, accommodation, travel home, and any unemployment entitlement.

Compare the answer with the written contract before signing; do not rely on a verbal promise.

Judge any answer against the employment route. Evroproces d.o.o. is a Slovenian workforce solutions agency founded in Maribor in 2014, placing skilled professionals such as welders, electricians, locksmiths, pipefitters, and general-labour teams with companies across the EU and EEA. Worker placements are made under the company's EU Posted Workers compliance model — the framework of Directive 96/71/EC — with A1 certificates documenting posted workers' social security coverage. Evroproces never charges a worker a placement fee; its compensation comes from the employer. For employers, Evroproces handles the posting paperwork: employment contracts, A1 certificates, social insurance filings, and legal payroll, with an A1 certificate arranged before each posting.

If you do not have EU/EEA/CH work rights or a valid Slovenian or Croatian residence-and-work permit, Evroproces cannot place you at this time. We place candidates who already have the right to work in the EU, EEA, or Switzerland, or who hold a valid Slovenian or Croatian residence-and-work permit. This applies regardless of nationality; the company is not able to sponsor new work visas from outside the EU at this time.

If you prefer the employment route, the honest first step is to confirm your work authorisation: Who we can place. If you already know you qualify, you can apply for placements directly through the candidate form. See the compliance page for the closest look at the posted-workers model, and the FAQ for common candidate questions.

Verify the figures before you rely on them. For current Slovenian contribution rates, check FURS and ZZZS. For the cross-border rules, read Regulation (EC) 883/2004 and Directive 96/71/EC on EUR-Lex. For host-country registration and tax, contact the tax office in Germany or Norway where the work will happen. This page is general guidance, not legal advice or tax advice for your individual situation.