How much is the minimum wage in Germany in 2026?

The minimum wage has been **€13.90 euros gross per hour since 1 January 2026**. As of 1 January 2027, it will be increased to €14.60 euros gross per hour. If you work full-time at around 40 hours per week, this results in a gross monthly salary of approximately **€2,409**. This rate applies regardless of your nationality or the country where your employer is headquartered.

Am I entitled to sick pay from day one of employment in Germany?

Not quite from day one — but almost. Under the Entgeltfortzahlungsgesetz (EFZG), employers must continue paying an employee's full gross salary for the first 42 calendar days (6 weeks) of sick leave. This is a statutory obligation that applies to every employment relationship where the employee has completed **at least 4 continuous weeks of service**. If you fall sick in the first 4 weeks, your health insurer pays Krankengeld directly instead of the employer.

What happens to my income after 6 weeks of sick leave in Germany?

After 6 weeks, statutory health insurance pays **Krankengeld** at roughly **70 percent of gross** for up to **78 weeks**. Krankengeld is 70 percent of the employee's regular gross salary, capped at 90 percent of their previous net salary. There is also an absolute daily cap tied to the contribution assessment ceiling, which in 2026 is **€5,812.50 per month**. This means the maximum Krankengeld is 70 percent of €5,812.50 — approximately **€4,068.75 per month** gross.

Is there a tax-free allowance in Germany, and do I get it automatically?

Yes, and you do not need to apply for it. For 2026, the basic tax-free allowance (**Grundfreibetrag**) rises to **€12,348 per year** — up from €12,096 in 2025. This means that you do not pay any income tax on earnings up to this threshold. The tax calculation only begins on the first euro you earn above this amount. This allowance is applied automatically by the tax authorities (Finanzamt) and your employer's payroll department. For married couples filing jointly, the basic tax-free allowance doubles to **€24,696**.

Germany 2026: What Your Employer Is Legally Keeping From You

Q: Can my employer make me work more than 8 hours a day in Germany?

The standard legal limit is **8 hours per day** under the Arbeitszeitgesetz. It can be extended to **10 hours on individual days**, provided the average over a six-month or 24-week window returns to 8 hours. A collective or works agreement must authorise the extension. There is no individual opt-out. If you are regularly working beyond these limits without a properly registered collective agreement, your employer may be in breach of the law.

German law requires your employer to pay your full gross salary for the first 42 calendar days of any sick leave — and this is not a benefit they can choose to offer or withhold. It is a statutory obligation. Most foreign workers in Germany never find this out until they are already sick and scared of losing income. That silence is not accidental. Here is what the law actually guarantees you — and what your employer is counting on you not knowing.

The Rights Hidden in Plain Sight That Are Costing You Money

You work hard, you pay your taxes, and every month a chunk of your gross salary disappears before you even see it. But here is the uncomfortable question: are you actually getting everything the law entitles you to in return?

Germany has some of the most worker-protective legislation in the world. It has one of the most generous sick leave systems globally — and Germans certainly make use of it, with the average employee taking 20 sick days per year, nearly double the UK average and roughly four times the US figure. Yet foreign workers — particularly those who arrived recently, who are not fluent in German legalese, or who are simply too nervous to push back against an employer — regularly miss out on protections that are theirs by law.

This is not about finding loopholes. The minimum wage is non-waivable — employees cannot legally waive their entitlement to it, even voluntarily. Any agreement that undercuts the minimum wage is invalid. The same logic applies to sick pay, overtime protections, and holiday rights. These are floors, not ceilings. And right now, many workers in Germany are living below them without knowing it.

What the Law Actually Says

Let us start with the law your employer would rather you never looked up. The Entgeltfortzahlungsgesetz (EFZG) establishes the right of an employee — who has already worked at the company for more than four weeks (§ 3 Abs. 3 EFZG) — to maintain earnings in the event of illness, provided that the employee is not at fault for the onset of the illness (§ 3 Abs. 1 EFZG). In plain English: if a doctor signs you off sick, your employer must keep paying you in full.

The 6-week clock runs per illness, not per calendar year. If an employee is sick with a back injury for 4 weeks, recovers and returns to work, and then falls sick with the flu two months later, the 6-week clock resets for the new illness. This is a crucial detail. Many employers — particularly smaller ones employing foreign workers — treat sick leave as a single annual entitlement, as if the 6-week total pools across the year. It does not. Each distinct illness triggers a fresh entitlement.

On working time, the Arbeitszeitgesetz (ArbZG) is equally clear. The standard limit is 8 hours per day. It can be extended to 10 hours on individual days, provided the average over a six-month or 24-week window returns to 8 hours. A collective or works agreement must authorise the extension. There is no individual opt-out. If your employer is regularly scheduling you for 10-hour days without a collective agreement in place, they are operating outside the law.

The Real Numbers for 2026

Every figure below has been verified from official and authoritative sources for the current year.

Category	Figure	Source
Minimum wage (Mindestlohn)	€13.90 gross/hour (from 1 Jan 2026)	BMAS / bmas.de
Full-time minimum monthly gross	€2,409 (based on 40 hrs/week)	MiLoG / Mindestlohnkommission
Mini-job earnings threshold	€603/month (from 1 Jan 2026)	BMAS / MiLoG
Sick pay — employer phase (EFZG)	100% gross salary for first 42 calendar days per illness	Entgeltfortzahlungsgesetz
Sick pay — insurer phase (Krankengeld)	70% gross, capped at 90% net, for up to 78 weeks	SGB V § 47
Pension insurance contribution (employee share)	9.3% of gross (up to €101,400/year ceiling)	SV-Rechengrößenverordnung 2026
Health insurance base contribution (employee share)	7.3% + average supplement of 2.9% ≈ 10.2%	GKV / PKF Deutschland
Unemployment insurance (employee share)	1.3% of gross (up to €101,400/year ceiling)	SV-Rechengrößenverordnung 2026
Long-term care insurance (employee share)	1.7% (with child) / 2.1% (childless over 23)	SGB XI / TK 2026
Basic tax-free allowance (Grundfreibetrag)	€12,348/year (from 1 Jan 2026)	§ 32a EStG 2026
Income tax rate	14% rising to 42% above €69,878; 45% above €277,825	§ 32a EStG 2026
Maximum working day	8 hours (extendable to 10 with conditions)	Arbeitszeitgesetz (ArbZG)

What does all this mean in practice? If you work full-time at the minimum wage — about 40 hours per week — your gross monthly salary is about €2,409. The minimum wage is set as a gross amount, before taxes and social security. Depending on your tax class and other factors, you will take home approximately €1,700 to €1,900 euros net per month. That gap between gross and net is real, it is substantial, and understanding exactly what is being deducted and why is the first step to making sure you are not paying more than your legal share.

What Your Employer Will Never Tell You

Here is what most people never find out until it is too late. Your six weeks of full sick pay do not just cover "normal" illness. Burnout leave in Germany is recognised as sick leave under German law when it is medically certified as rendering an employee unfit for work. It is governed by general sickness absence rules under the Entgeltfortzahlungsgesetz and the Social Code. Once a doctor certifies burnout-related incapacity, it is treated in the same way as any other illness. Getting a doctor's note is not weakness. It is your legal right, and your employer pays the bill.

This is where workers get caught out. When your sick leave runs past six weeks, most workers assume their income protection ends. It does not. Krankengeld can be paid for up to 78 weeks within a 3-year block for the same illness. Combined with the initial 6 weeks of employer-paid sick leave, this means an employee can be off sick for the same condition for up to 84 weeks — roughly 19 months — while still receiving income. 19 months. That is income protection that most workers in the US or UK would find unimaginable.

Here are three specific things you can do right now to protect yourself:

Check your payslip against the minimum wage calculator at bmas.de/mindestlohnrechner. A monthly salary is lawful only if, when compared with the actual hours worked, it still produces an hourly rate of at least €13.90 gross. A monthly lump sum cannot lawfully hide unpaid overtime, under-recorded hours, or an hourly rate that falls below the statutory minimum in practice.
Know your overtime rights. Overtime must be explicitly addressed in the employment contract or collective bargaining agreement (CBA). There is no statutory overtime premium, but many collective agreements specify supplements of 25-50 percent above the regular hourly rate. Some agreements also allow for compensatory time off instead of monetary compensation. If your contract says nothing about overtime pay, that is a conversation you are entitled to have.
Use the eAU electronic sick note system. Since its rollout, your doctor sends your sick note digitally straight to your employer and health insurer. You no longer need to carry a paper certificate. Sick leave must be reported promptly to the employer, and a medical certificate is required after 3 calendar days of absence — but the process is now simpler than many workers realise. Do not let an employer pressure you to return early because you do not know this.

Germany vs The Rest of Europe

Germany's €13.90 minimum wage from 1 January 2026 places it solidly in the upper tier of European wage floors. But how does it compare to its neighbours? From 1 January 2026, the gross statutory minimum wage for employees aged 21 and over in the Netherlands rose to €14.71 per hour, an increase of 2.15 percent compared to the previous rate of €14.40. That is €0.81 per hour more than Germany's floor. And it does not stop there: the Dutch government re-evaluates and adjusts the minimum wage every six months — and as of July 2026, the minimum salary rate for workers aged 21 and older will be €14.99 per hour, increased from €14.71 per hour.

On paper, Germany's sick pay and working time protections are among the strongest in the EU. The six-week full-pay sick entitlement is what surprises US and UK employers most. In the UK, statutory sick pay is a flat weekly rate the employer pays out of pocket. In Germany, the employer pays the employee's actual salary in full for six weeks. That is a fundamentally different level of worker protection — and it is why understanding the German system in full matters so much more than in countries where employer obligations are minimal. Do not leave this money on the table.

How to Claim What You Are Owed

Verify your current hourly rate against the legal minimum by visiting the official BMAS minimum wage calculator at bmas.de/mindestlohnrechner. If your effective hourly rate — total monthly gross divided by actual hours worked — falls below €13.90, your employer is violating the Mindestlohngesetz and you can file a complaint with the Zollbehörde (Customs Authority), which enforces minimum wage compliance.
Report sick leave immediately and get your certificate. Notify your employer on day one of any illness. A medical certificate (Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung) is legally required from the third calendar day of absence. Your doctor submits it electronically via the eAU system directly to your employer and your health insurer (Krankenkasse).
If your employer disputes your sick pay, contact your statutory health insurer (Krankenkasse) directly. The insurer tracks entitlement periods and can clarify your rights in writing. For disputes with your employer about the six-week salary continuation, contact the Arbeitsgericht (Labour Court) — the first instance is free of charge for workers.
Check whether a collective agreement (Tarifvertrag) applies to your sector. Many industries have negotiated rates and overtime premiums well above the statutory minimum. Use the database at bmas.de/tarifregister to identify whether your employer is bound by a sectoral agreement. If they are, those terms are legally enforceable — whether or not they told you about them.
File your annual tax return (Steuererklärung) via ELSTER. Filing voluntarily is almost always worthwhile — the average German income tax refund is over €1,000. The free ELSTER portal at elster.de walks you through every deductible, including the automatic €1,230 work-related expense flat rate that applies to all employees. The self-filing deadline is July 31 of the following year — for 2026 income, that means July 31, 2027.
Use the EuroDuty tools to cross-check your numbers. Run your salary through the EuroDuty salary calculator to see exactly what your net pay should be after all deductions in 2026 — and use the salary comparator to benchmark your pay against workers in the same role across all 27 EU member states.

Calculate your exact net salary and compare your rights across all 27 EU countries at EuroDuty — completely free.