Minimum Wage in Germany 2026: Rates, Sector Floors, and Employer Obligations

Germany’s statutory minimum wage rose to €13.90 gross per hour on 1 January 2026, up 8.4 percent from €12.82, with a further step to €14.60 already fixed for January 2027.

For companies hiring into Germany, the harder question is not the headline rate but where it stops applying: twelve sectors carry binding wage floors negotiated through collective agreements and declared universally applicable, running from €15.00 in building cleaning to €21.03 for qualified care staff from July 2026, and paying the national rate to someone covered by one of those floors is a breach even when the contract looks clean.

Layer on employer social contributions of roughly 21 percent and a full-time minimum wage hire lands closer to €2,900 per month in real cost than the €2,409 gross figure most salary guides quote.

This page covers the 2026 and 2027 rates, the exemption categories that get misread, working time records under §17 MiLoG, penalty exposure including the public procurement trigger, and how these obligations sit when you hire through one of the EOR providers operating in Germany.

What Is the Minimum Wage in Germany Per Hour in 2026?

The €13.90 rate is set by the Minimum Wage Act (MiLoG) and applies nationwide across every industry. At a 40 hour week, averaged as 173.33 hours per month, gross pay works out to roughly €2,409 per month.

The protection attaches to the hour, not the month. A fixed monthly salary is lawful only if it still clears €13.90 per hour once actual hours worked are counted, which is where employers with unrecorded overtime fail an inspection rather than in the wording of the contract.

Both the 2026 and 2027 increases came from a single decision. The Mindestlohnkommission agreed them unanimously in June 2025, benchmarked against collective wage movement and the reference point of 60 percent of median full-time earnings. Around 6.6 million workers were affected by the January 2026 step, concentrated in hospitality, retail, logistics, and cleaning.

Who Does the German Minimum Wage Apply To?

The minimum wage covers every employee working in Germany, whatever their nationality, contract type, or hours. Part-time staff, seasonal workers, mini-jobbers, and probationary employees are all inside it. Section 3 MiLoG voids any agreement that undercuts the rate, so an employee who accepts less in writing can still recover the shortfall.

Foreign Employers and Non-German Employees

Liability follows the place of work, not the place of incorporation. A company registered outside Germany owes the German rate on every hour worked on German soil.

Employers posting workers into construction, cleaning, logistics, hospitality, or meat processing must also file advance notification with the customs authority (Zoll) under Section 16 MiLoG and keep supporting documents in German at the work site.

Minimum Wage Exemptions in Germany

Section 22 MiLoG exempts five groups: under-18s without a completed vocational qualification, apprentices, recognised volunteers, the long-term unemployed during their first six months in a new job, and specific internship types.

The internship rule catches people out. Compulsory placements are exempt without limit, but voluntary orientation internships are exempt only up to three months. Run one past that point and full entitlement applies retroactively from day one.

Sector Minimum Wages in Germany by Industry

Twelve sectors carry their own binding wage floors. Unions and employer associations negotiate them, then the government declares them universally applicable under the Posted Workers Act (AEntG), which extends them to every company in scope including firms that are not party to the collective agreement.

Where a sector rate applies, it replaces the statutory one. Paying €13.90 to a cleaner or a construction labourer is a breach even though the contract meets the national floor.

Scope is decided by the work actually performed and the wage group, not by what the company calls itself. A facilities firm doing interior cleaning and glass cleaning owes two different rates to two teams. Check the applicable Lohngruppe before you set pay, and reconfirm mid-year, since several sectors adjust in July rather than January.

Minimum Wage for Mini-Jobs and the €603 Monthly Limit

Mini-jobbers earn the full statutory rate. The difference sits in the earnings ceiling, which has been tied to the minimum wage since 2022 and is calculated on ten working hours per week.

At €13.90 an hour that ceiling is €603 per month on annual average, which allows a maximum of 43.4 hours. It rises to €633 in January 2027 alongside the next wage increase.

The increase is not a free pass to add hours. Every minimum wage rise pushes existing mini-jobbers closer to the limit if their hours stay fixed, so payroll needs to reset either the hours or the monthly cap each January. Cross the threshold and the role becomes a midi-job, which pulls the employee into full social security contributions and changes the employer’s cost base.

Employer Cost of a Minimum Wage Employee in Germany

Gross pay is roughly three quarters of the real number. Employer social contributions add about 21 percent on top, split across pension at 9.3 percent, health at 7.3 percent plus half the average supplementary rate of 2.9 percent, long-term care at 1.8 percent, and unemployment at 1.3 percent.

Accident insurance sits outside that split and is paid entirely by the employer. The rate depends on the trade association covering the industry and the risk class of the work, so a warehouse role costs more than an office one.

None of this touches the contribution ceilings. A minimum wage salary falls well below the 2026 thresholds of €5,812.50 per month for health and care and €8,450 for pension and unemployment, so every euro of gross pay attracts the full contribution rate.

Working Time Record Keeping Under Section 17 MiLoG

Section 17 MiLoG requires employers to record the start, end, and duration of daily working hours for two groups: mini-jobbers outside private households, and all staff in the sectors listed in Section 2a of the Act to Combat Undeclared Work, which covers construction, hospitality, passenger and freight transport, logistics, cleaning, forestry, meat processing, fairs, and security.

Records must be made within seven days of the work being performed and kept for two years. Format is open, so a spreadsheet or a paper sheet is acceptable, but the record has to show actual hours rather than contracted ones.

Payroll documentation for staff working in Germany must be held in German and produced on request. For employers based abroad, that means keeping it available in Germany, not on a server in the home country.

How Germany Enforces the Minimum Wage

Enforcement sits with Finanzkontrolle Schwarzarbeit, the undeclared work unit of the customs authority. Inspections run on random sampling weighted towards high-risk sectors, and on employee tip-offs, which are the more common trigger.

Inspectors examine payroll records, working time sheets, and contracts on site. Where a works council exists, it is required to disclose known violations during an inspection.

Penalties for Minimum Wage Violations in Germany

Underpayment is treated as a regulatory offence under Section 21 MiLoG, with a fine ceiling of €500,000. Where the financial gain from non-compliance exceeds that figure, the customs authority can go higher under the Act on Regulatory Offences.

The commercial consequence usually hurts more than the fine. Any penalty above €2,500 triggers an entry in the Competition Register and exclusion from public procurement for up to three years, which closes off municipal, state, and federal contracts across the board.

Liability also runs up the supply chain. Under Section 13 MiLoG read with Section 14 AEntG, a company commissioning substantial work is liable for minimum wage shortfalls by its contractors and their subcontractors, and negligent ignorance is not a defence. Underpaid wages stay recoverable by the employee alongside back social security contributions.

Minimum Wage Compliance When Hiring Through an EOR in Germany

An EOR is the legal employer of record in Germany, which puts MiLoG obligations on its books rather than yours. It sets the contractual hourly rate, runs payroll, files social contributions, and holds the Section 17 working time records in German at a German address, which is the part foreign employers most often get wrong when they employ directly.

Sector classification is the question worth asking during vendor selection. Most providers handle the statutory rate correctly by default. Fewer will proactively check whether a warehouse, cleaning, or care role falls under a binding sector floor, and that judgement sits with whoever writes the job description. Ask how the provider identifies the applicable wage group before you sign.

Contractor liability is a separate exposure and an EOR does not solve it. If you also engage German subcontractors for facilities, logistics, or construction work, Section 13 MiLoG still puts their minimum wage shortfalls on you.

Our Germany EOR provider rankings cover how each provider handles payroll accuracy and statutory record keeping, and the average salary benchmarks for Germany show where market pay actually sits against these floors.

Frequently Asked Questions