Minijob and Midijob in Germany 2026: the €603 limit, costs and contributions

Many students, retirees, parents and newcomers to Germany start with a Minijob: a small job with a fixed monthly earnings limit, where the employee keeps almost all of the pay. Just above that limit is the Midijob range, where social insurance is charged at reduced rates. This guide explains both for 2026, in English, with figures from the Germany Minijob calculator and the Germany net salary calculator.

It covers the usual commercial Minijob, where the employer is a business. Minijobs in private households, such as cleaning or babysitting for a family, have lower rates and are not included.

The short answer

In 2026 a Minijob may pay up to €603 a month. At that pay, the employee keeps €581.29 after the pension top-up, and the employer pays €790.95 in total, including flat-rate contributions, a flat tax and levies.Minijob-Zentrale↗

Pay from just above the Minijob limit up to €2,000 a month is in the Midijob range: normal employment, but with lower employee contributions at the bottom of the range.

What counts as a Minijob

A Minijob (geringfügige Beschäftigung) is a job whose regular pay does not exceed the earnings limit (Geringfügigkeitsgrenze). The limit is tied to the minimum wage: by law it is what ten hours a week at the minimum wage would earn, rounded up to the next euro. With the minimum wage at €13.90 an hour from January 2026, the limit is €603 a month.Federal Ministry of Justice↗

A few rules matter in practice:

• It’s the regular pay that counts. An unforeseen overshoot in no more than two months of the year doesn’t end the Minijob.
• One Minijob next to a main job stays a Minijob. It is not added to your main job’s pay. A second Minijob alongside a main job is added, and so are several Minijobs held without a main job.
• Hours follow from the limit. At the minimum wage, the limit allows about ten hours a week; working more at that wage takes you over the limit.

What the employer pays

For a commercial Minijob, the employer pays flat-rate charges to the Minijob-Zentrale, the central office run by the German pension insurance:

With every charge applying, the employer’s charges are 31.17% of the pay, which on a full €603 Minijob comes to €187.95 a month once each charge is rounded to the cent. Including the pay, the job costs the employer €9,491.40 a year. Statutory accident insurance comes on top. It is billed separately by the employer’s liability insurer and depends on the industry.

If the employee has private health insurance, the health flat rate falls away and the total monthly cost of the same job is €712.56. The charges are percentages, so they scale with pay: a Minijob paying €300 a month costs the employer €393.51, and the employee keeps €289.20 after the pension top-up.

Your rights in a Minijob

A Minijob is a normal job in law, not a lesser kind of work. The minimum wage applies, and Minijobbers are entitled to paid holiday and to continued pay when they are sick, like other employees. That is what the U1 and U2 levies in the table are for: they fund partial refunds to employers of sick pay and maternity pay, so smaller employers aren’t put off hiring.

The employer registers the job with the Minijob-Zentrale and pays the charges there, not to a health fund. As an employee you don’t have to register anything yourself, but you should tell your employer about any other jobs you have. Only then can the employer check whether your jobs have to be added together, which could turn the Minijob into a fully insured job.

The pension top-up and opting out

Minijobbers are compulsorily insured in the state pension. The employer pays its 15%, and the employee tops this up to the full pension rate of 18.6% by paying 3.6% of their pay. On a full Minijob that is €21.71 a month.

You can opt out. To do so, you give your employer a written or electronic request to be exempted, and the exemption then applies for as long as the job lasts. If you have several Minijobs, the choice must be the same for all of them.Federal Ministry of Justice↗ Opting out raises your net pay to €603.00 a month, but your employer’s contribution is still due, and you give up the full pension rights that the top-up buys.

Health insurance and tax

A Minijob does not give you health insurance of your own. The employer’s flat-rate health contribution is only due if you are already in public health insurance, for example as a family member, a student or through a main job, and it doesn’t create cover by itself. If you are covered free of charge through a parent or spouse, a Minijob normally lets you keep that family cover, because Minijob pay stays within the income limit for it.

Tax is simple in most cases. The employer usually pays the flat tax of 2%, which covers wage tax, solidarity surcharge and church tax. The employee then pays no tax on the Minijob, and the pay doesn’t need to appear in a tax return.Federal Ministry of Justice↗ The employer can instead withhold wage tax through your tax class. In class I that is usually nothing at this level, but in class V or VI it can be a real deduction, which the Minijob calculator does not work out.

The Midijob transition range

Between the Minijob limit and €2,000 a month, a job is fully insured, but in the transition range (Übergangsbereich) the employee’s contributions are worked out on a reduced amount of pay. The reduction is largest just above the Minijob limit and shrinks to nothing at the top of the range, so contributions rise smoothly instead of jumping.Deutsche Rentenversicherung↗

Pension rights are not reduced: they are based on your actual pay. Wage tax is not affected either.

If you have more than one job, the range depends on your total pay from all of them. A part-time job alongside a full-time one therefore doesn’t get the reduction, even if its own pay is within the range.Federal Ministry of Justice↗ The figures below assume the job is your only one.

These figures are for a single employee in tax class I in Berlin, without children:

At €1,500 and €2,000 some of the share deducted is wage tax; below that, in class I, it is all social insurance. At the top of the range the contributions reach the normal rates.

The employer’s side is different in the transition range: the employer pays more than half of the total, especially near the bottom of the range. The Germany employer cost calculator starts above the range, so it doesn’t cover Midijobs.

Just above the limit

Earning a little more than the limit is usually still worth it. A Minijob on €603 leaves €581.29 with the pension top-up, while a Midijob on €650 leaves €633.05, with health, care and unemployment insurance included. The difference to watch is health insurance: if you were covered free of charge as a family member, a Midijob usually ends that, because you are now insured through your own job.

What this guide does not cover

• Short-term employment (kurzfristige Beschäftigung): work limited to a few months a year, with different rules.
• Minijobs in private households: lower flat rates and a simpler procedure.
• The employer’s cost in the Midijob range and accident insurance, which depends on the industry.

Work out a Minijob

Enter the monthly pay and choose whether the employee has public health insurance, has opted out of the pension top-up, and whether the employer pays the flat tax.

For pay above the Midijob range, use the Germany net salary calculator, and read the Germany net salary guide for how each deduction works.

These figures are estimates for a commercial Minijob and for regular monthly pay in the Midijob range, from the Minijob-Zentrale’s and Deutsche Rentenversicherung’s 2026 rates. They are not tax or legal advice.