Six months after the initial announcement, the Ministry of Employment has published in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands (BOC) the regulatory bases for these subsidies. The measures seek to alleviate pressure on small businesses in an archipelago that exceeded 146,000 self-employed workers by the end of 2025, standing out as one of the communities with the highest growth in the country.
In terms of work-life balance, self-employed individuals can receive up to 1,100 euros per month to hire a person to substitute them during periods of leave for birth, adoption, fostering, or risk during pregnancy and lactation. This aid can reach a maximum of 8,800 euros in risk cases. Furthermore, if the self-employed person decides to retain the substitute with an indefinite contract, they can apply for an additional aid of 7,500 euros, which will increase to 9,000 euros if the worker belongs to priority groups such as those over 45, long-term unemployed, or people with disabilities.
The order also includes aid of up to 3,000 euros to cover 75% of expenses for nurseries, care centers, holiday camps, and other work-life balance resources. This measure includes services outside school hours and dining expenses, provided they are itemized on the invoice, aiming to support self-employed individuals with young children, elderly relatives, or dependents.
Additionally, the + Uno 52 program offers 5,000 euros for each full-time indefinite contract for individuals aged 52 or older, a figure that can rise to 6,000 euros in municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants. To access this aid, the self-employed person must not have had employees in the six months prior to hiring, and the employment must be maintained for at least one year. The objective is to facilitate initial hiring and reintroduce a demographic facing employment difficulties back into the labor market.
“"In our land, we must talk about self-employed individuals differently than in the rest of the national territory."
These initiatives aim to address two key problems in the Canarian economy: the vulnerability of self-employed individuals to family obligations and the difficulties faced by long-term unemployed people of a certain age in re-entering the labor market. The Government of the Canary Islands, under the presidency of Fernando Clavijo, intends that work-life balance does not represent an economic penalty and that initial hiring is not an insurmountable barrier for small businesses.
