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Germany's minimum wage: €13.90 an hour, €14.60 from 2027, and the €603 Minijob limit it sets

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    • Timeline added: Germany's general statutory minimum wage began on 1 January 2015 at €8.50 an hour, set directly in the Minimum Wage Act.
    • Timeline added: The first adjustment ordinance, dated November 2016, raised the rate to €8.84 an hour from January 2017.
    • Timeline added: The second adjustment ordinance, dated November 2018, set €9.19 an hour from January 2019.
    • Timeline added: The rate rose to €9.35 an hour in January 2020.
    • Timeline added: The third adjustment ordinance, dated November 2020, set €9.50 an hour from January 2021.
    • Timeline added: A further step took the rate to €9.60 an hour in July 2021.
    • Timeline added: The rate rose to €9.82 an hour in January 2022.
    • Timeline added: The rate reached €10.45 an hour in July 2022.
    • Timeline added: A one-off amendment to the Minimum Wage Act raised the rate to €12 an hour from 1 October 2022. The same law, dated 30 June 2022, also changed the rules on marginal employment such as Minijobs. Later adjustments stayed with the commission.
    • Timeline added: The fourth adjustment ordinance, dated 24 November 2023, set €12.41 an hour from January 2024.
    • Timeline added: The rate then rose to €12.82 an hour in January 2025.
    • Timeline added: The ordinance behind both rates is dated 5 November 2025 and appears in the Federal Law Gazette as BGBl. 2025 I Nr. 268.
    • Timeline added: The Fifth Minimum Wage Adjustment Ordinance sets the rate at €13.90 gross an hour from 1 January 2026 and €14.60 gross an hour from 1 January 2027.
    • Timeline added: Since January 2026 the Minijob earnings ceiling is €603 a month. Pay from €603.01 to €2,000 falls in the transition band (Übergangsbereich), formerly the sliding zone. The Federal Employment Agency links both changes to the higher minimum wage.
    • Confirmed: The ordinance behind both rates is dated 5 November 2025 and appears in the Federal Law Gazette as BGBl. 2025 I Nr. 268.
    • Confirmed: Germany's general statutory minimum wage began on 1 January 2015 at €8.50 an hour, set directly in the Minimum Wage Act.
    • Confirmed: The first adjustment ordinance, dated November 2016, raised the rate to €8.84 an hour from January 2017.
    • Confirmed: The second adjustment ordinance, dated November 2018, set €9.19 an hour from January 2019.
    • Confirmed: The rate rose to €9.35 an hour in January 2020.
    • Confirmed: The third adjustment ordinance, dated November 2020, set €9.50 an hour from January 2021.
    • Confirmed: A further step took the rate to €9.60 an hour in July 2021.
    • Confirmed: The rate rose to €9.82 an hour in January 2022.
    • Confirmed: The rate reached €10.45 an hour in July 2022.
    • Confirmed: A one-off amendment to the Minimum Wage Act raised the rate to €12 an hour from 1 October 2022. The same law, dated 30 June 2022, also changed the rules on marginal employment such as Minijobs. Later adjustments stayed with the commission.
    • Confirmed: The fourth adjustment ordinance, dated 24 November 2023, set €12.41 an hour from January 2024.
    • Confirmed: The rate then rose to €12.82 an hour in January 2025.
    • Confirmed: A job also counts as marginal if, within a calendar year, it is limited by its nature or by contract to three months or 70 working days at most, unless it is done professionally and pays above the ceiling.
    • Confirmed: The minimum wage applies whatever the hours or nationality, so it covers Minijobbers, seasonal workers and foreign employees working in Germany, whether their employer is German or based abroad.
    • Confirmed: The entitlement covers every hour actually worked in the pay period, usually the calendar month, and that includes overtime.
    • Confirmed: Employers must pay no later than the last bank working day of the month after the work was done. A written working-time account allows only limited exceptions.
    • Confirmed: The minimum wage must be paid in money and cannot be replaced by benefits in kind. Only for seasonal workers may board and lodging be counted, and then within narrow limits.
    • Confirmed: Employers must record working time for all Minijobbers, except those in private households, and for staff in listed sectors such as construction, restaurants and lodging, building cleaning, forestry, meat processing, and haulage and logistics.
    • Confirmed: The record must show when each day's work started and ended and how long it lasted, made within a week of the working day. Handwritten notes are enough, and the duty can lapse above certain pay thresholds.
    • Confirmed: Customs checks that employers pay the minimum wage, through its Finanzkontrolle Schwarzarbeit unit, which deals with undeclared work.
    • Confirmed: An independent commission of employer associations and trade unions decides on adjustments to the rate every two years, as the Minimum Wage Act requires.
    • Confirmed: The government can only adopt the commission's proposal unchanged. It makes the proposed rate binding on all employers and employees by ordinance.
    • Confirmed: In an overall assessment, the commission weighs adequate minimum protection for workers, fair competition and not putting jobs at risk, and it follows collective pay trends with a lag. It must give written reasons for its decision.
    • Confirmed: The Act does not treat young people covered by the Youth Employment Protection Act as employees if they lack a completed vocational training. The labour ministry describes this group as workers under 18.
    • Confirmed: The Act does not govern the pay of people employed for their vocational training, or of volunteers.
    • Confirmed: For people who were long-term unemployed immediately before starting a job, the minimum wage does not apply during the first six months of that job.
    • Confirmed: Interns count as employees under the Act unless the internship is compulsory under school, training or university rules, or lasts up to three months to help choose a training course or degree. Also excluded are internships of up to three months alongside training or study, if there was none before with the same training provider, and entry qualification or vocational preparation schemes.
    • Source added: § 1 MiLoV5 - Einzelnorm (Gesetze im Internet (Federal Ministry of Justice))
    • Source added: BMAS - Der gesetzliche Mindestlohn - Ein Überblick (Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS))
    • Source added: BMAS - Einführung und Anpassungen des Mindestlohns (Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS))
    • Source added: Bundesagentur für Arbeit, Weisung 202604002 of 9 April 2026: 2026 update of Rechengrößen, Mindestlohn and Geringfügigkeitsgrenze (Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit))
    • Source added: § 8 SGB 4 - Einzelnorm (Gesetze im Internet (Federal Ministry of Justice))
    • Source added: § 9 MiLoG - Einzelnorm (Gesetze im Internet (Federal Ministry of Justice))
    • Source added: § 22 MiLoG - Einzelnorm (Gesetze im Internet (Federal Ministry of Justice))