So 172 driver, with some expenses taken into account we are talking about 2000-2200€ average per month during the second year at the company (for contractor cadets).
Those are similar to numbers I have heard from Germany, yes, where the tax authority has been very active to ensure things are done right.
My experience, although a few years out of date, was a take home in the region of €4000 per month spread over a year. One big reason for that however was I remained on grandfather rights paying Irish PRSI (Pay Related Social Insurance) of only 4 %.
It becomes obvious that the most favourable strategy is to remain based in Ireland where the employer SS is 0%, thus increasing by a 33% the income with respect to Spain.
The PRSI in the case of self-employed pilots is 4 % of reckonable earnings in Ireland, it's an
employer's responsibility to pay (which in this case is your own company). There are different classes of SI and for normal employees I think it's a bit higher. There were talks about this in the past if Ryanair's self-employed pilots maybe should've been in a different class thus paying more. And also who should've paid, contractor or Ryanair. However, not sure if anything ever came out of that??