Minijob in Germany 2026: 556 EUR Rules, Tax and Pension

What is a Minijob?

A Minijob (geringfügige Beschäftigung) is a regular employment contract with an earnings cap. The 2026 cap is EUR 556/month, indexed to the federal Mindestlohn — every increase in minimum wage automatically lifts the Minijob ceiling. Hours are not capped directly; the cap is monetary.

All standard labour-law protections apply: minimum 4 weeks paid leave (pro-rated by working days), continued pay for up to 6 weeks of illness, statutory notice periods, and protection against dismissal after 6 months in firms with more than 10 employees. There is no probation-period exemption from these rights.

The EUR 556 limit and exceptions

The limit is a 12-month rolling average. Earning EUR 600 in November and EUR 512 in December is fine if the annual total stays at EUR 6,672 (12 × 556). Twice per calendar year you may exceed the cap up to double (EUR 1,112) for unforeseeable reasons — a colleague's sickness, a one-off project — without losing Minijob status.

Predictable extra hours that push you over EUR 556 every month turn the job into a regular Sozialversicherungspflichtiges Arbeitsverhältnis from day one. The Minijob-Zentrale (DRV Knappschaft-Bahn-See) is the central reporting body and can audit retrospectively for up to four years.

Tax treatment

The employer pays a 2% flat-rate Pauschalsteuer that covers income tax, solidarity surcharge and church tax for the Minijob. The employee receives the gross amount as net — no payslip deductions for tax. This 2% can also be passed to the employee by contract, but in practice the employer almost always pays it.

Alternatively the Minijob can be taxed via the employee's normal Lohnsteuerkarte if it is the second job (tax class VI). This is common when someone holds two Minijobs (only the first is flat-tax eligible) or when a Minijob runs alongside a main full-time job at a second employer.

Pension: opt in or out?

Since 2013 Minijobs are pension-insured by default. The employee contributes 3.6% (the difference between the 18.6% statutory rate and the employer's 15% flat rate). On EUR 556 that is roughly EUR 20/month — enough to count the year as full Wartezeit (qualifying period) for the German state pension.

You can file Befreiungsantrag to opt out, saving EUR 20/month. Do this only if you already have full pension coverage from a main job or another scheme — opting out means the Minijob year does not count toward the 5-year minimum or the 35/45-year long-service tracks, which can shift your retirement age and reduce the pension formula by a meaningful amount over a 20-year horizon.

Midijob: the EUR 556–2,000 band

Earning EUR 557 to EUR 2,000 puts you in the Übergangsbereich (Midijob). Employer contributions are the standard ~20%. Employee contributions are reduced via a sliding formula — at EUR 556.01 the employee share is near zero, ramping up to the full ~20% only at EUR 2,000.

Midijob is therefore the right tool for jobs that genuinely need a bit more than EUR 556 — a regular 60-hour shift pattern, for instance. The marginal effective tax-and-contribution rate just above EUR 556 is much lower than it looks because of the formula. Use the official Midijob-Rechner of the Deutsche Rentenversicherung for exact numbers.

Combining jobs

Main job + 1 Minijob: the Minijob is tax-free for the employee under the 2% flat-rate scheme, and contributions remain capped. Most common configuration.

Main job + 2 Minijobs: the second Minijob is added to the main job for tax and contribution purposes — i.e. taxed at your full marginal rate as if it were salary. Almost never financially worthwhile.

Two Minijobs without a main job: both can stay under the flat-rate scheme as long as their combined earnings stay under EUR 556. Otherwise the second flips to standard insurance.

Common mistakes

Earning EUR 600 every month for three months — the rolling average busts the cap, retroactively converts the contract into a normal one and creates a back-tax and back-contribution bill.

Treating Minijobbers as freelancers (Scheinselbständigkeit) — the Minijob is an employment contract, with all employer obligations including paid leave and sick pay. Audits routinely reclassify and charge five years of contributions to the employer.

Opting out of pension as a young Minijobber without a main job. The few euros saved each month can cost thousands in retirement and shift the qualifying-year clock dangerously close to insufficient Wartezeit.