Information for this page was compiled during December 2023 and January 2024. As Member States are currently transposing the EU minimum wage directive, national legislation can be subject to change. Eurofound intends to update these profiles in early 2025. Users are invited to contact Eurofound if they are aware of changes.
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The German statutory minimum wage is regulated by the 2015 ‘Act Regulating a General Minimum Wage’ (Minimum Wage Act). Before 2015, there was no generally applicable statutory minimum wage in Germany. The specific level of the statutory minimum wage is set by a Minimum Wage Adjustment Ordinance of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) every two years upon a proposal made by the Minimum Wage Commission.
In addition to the statutory minimum wage, minimum wage standards or other provisions of collective agreements in sectors and branches can be declared generally binding by means of a ministerial ordinance in accordance with the Collective Bargaining Agreement Act, the Posting of Workers Act or the Temporary Employment Act. In these cases, employers who are otherwise not bound by the collective agreement fall into the scope of the respective collective agreement.
The statutory minimum wage is set by a ministerial ordinance upon the proposal of the Minimum Wage Commission every two years. According to the Minimum Wage Act (section 4(2)), the Minimum Wage Commission is newly appointed every five years. It consists of a chairperson and three members of each side of the social partners. The social partner representatives and the chair have voting rights. Two additional advisory members from the scientific community do not have a voting right in decisions of the commission. They are proposed by the social partners but must be independent of the social partners’ organisations (for example, they shall not be employed by research institutes funded by a social partner organisation). The Federal Government appoints the chairperson upon the joint proposal of the umbrella organisations of the employer organisations and trade unions. The Minimum Wage Commission is supported by a secretariat with currently eight staff members. The secretariat is situated at the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAUA) as an independent organisational unit funded by the federal state (budget for 2024 around €1.36 million). It supports the commission with, among others, the scientific evaluation of the minimum wage and gives information and advice for employees and companies.
According to the Minimum Wage Act (Section 9), every two years in June, the Minimum Wage Commission passes a resolution with a proposal for the level of the minimum wage for the next two years, starting in January of the following year. Section 10 prescribes that the commission decides by a simple majority of the votes of the members who are present. The chairperson first abstains from voting. If the resolution does not have the majority, the chairperson makes a compromise proposal. Only if, following the deliberations on the compromise proposal, there is still no majority vote, the chairperson casts a vote. The Minimum Wage Commission can organise hearings with the umbrella organisations of the employer organisations and trade unions, sectoral employers’ organisations and trade unions, church-based organisations under public law, charitable associations, associations representing economic and social interests, and others affected by the minimum wage. It also makes use of information and expert opinions from external bodies. Section 9 further stipulates that the Commission must provide written grounds for its decision and present a report alongside the resolution with an evaluation of the impact of the minimum wage on the protection of workers, competition, employment regarding certain branches of industry and regions, as well as productivity.
According to section 11, when the Minimum Wage Commission has passed its resolution, the government drafts a legal ordinance for the setting of the minimum wage. After the draft ordinance has been published social partner and civil society organisations receive the possibility to submit written opinions on the draft within three weeks. The government can then make the minimum wage adjustment proposed by the Minimum Wage Commission binding for all employers and employees by means of a legal ordinance without the consent of the Bundesrat (the second federal legislative chamber representing the German federal states (Bundesländer). The federal government can only implement the proposal made by the Minimum Wage Commission unchanged and cannot set a different amount. If the decision is not implemented, the current minimum wage level would remain.
According to section 9(2) of the Minimum Wage Act, the Minimum Wage Commission in setting the minimum wage ‘is subsequently guided by collective wage developments’. Collective wage development data are drawn from the Index of Collectively Bargained Wages (Tariflohnindex) of the Federal Statistical Office. Specifically, in accordance with the definition of the legal minimum wage as an hourly wage, the collective hourly earnings are used as a basis.
Furthermore, the Minimum Wage Commission decides, according to the same section 9(2) of the Minimum Wage Act in the context of an overall assessment of the following criteria:
In its implementation of the above legal criteria to assess the appropriateness of the statutory minimum wage adjustments, the Minimum Wage Commission investigates the development of low wages below and above the statutory minimum wage employing data from the Structural Earnings Survey (VSE) and the Earnings Surveys (VE), supplemented by evaluations of the Quarterly Earnings Survey (VVE) and the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). The commission is further looking into compliance with the statutory minimum wage using data from “Financial Control of Undeclared Work”, a unit in the General Customs Directorate, which monitors compliance with the minimum wage. To examine the impact of the minimum wage on receipt of social benefits, especially minimum income benefits on the basis of Social Code Book II, the commission is drawing data from the several statistics of the Federal Employment Agency.
For employment (East/West; exclusively part-time employees; employees subject to social insurance contributions (excluding trainees) with a minor part-time job; employees subject to social insurance contributions (excluding trainees)) and unemployment figures (East/West; divided by gender, age, nationality), the Commission is using data from the Federal Employment Agency.
The commission also looks into working time developments (Structural Earnings Survey (VSE); Earnings Surveys (VE); Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), Establishment Panel of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Working time survey by the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)), vacancies to analyse labour supply and demand (statistics of the Federal Employment Agency; IAB Job Survey), developments regarding apprenticeships and further education (statistics of Federal Ministry of Education and Research; IAB Job Survey), and developments regarding self-employment (Mannheim Company Panel (MUP); Socio Economic Panel (SOEP)).
For data regarding the minimum wage’s impact on competition, the Minimum Wage Commission draws on data from the IAB Job Survey, the Structural Earnings Survey (VSE) and the Company Survey by Ipsos. Labour productivity and labour costs are considered using data from the Federal Statistical Office (Labour Cost Index, National Accounts). Further data used concerns investments (IAB Establishment Panel), prices (statistics of the Federal Statistical Office), private consumption (statistics of the Federal Statistical Office), profits (statistics of the Federal Statistical Office, National Accounts; IAB Company Panel), and business registration and insolvency statistics (Federal Statistical Office).
According to Section 1(1) of the Minimum Wage Act, ‘each worker is entitled to payment by their employer of remuneration of no less than the amount of the minimum wage’. Interns qualify as workers if their internship is not part of an official educational programme (e.g. university studies, school) and if it exceeds three months. Also, children covered by the Youth Employment Protection Act (Jugendarbeitsschutzgesetz) who have not completed any vocational training are not regarded as workers within the meaning of this Act. Furthermore, apprentices are not defined as workers. They receive a minimum remuneration according to paragraph 17 of the Vocational Training Act (BBiG).
Long-term unemployed according to the definition in the Social Code Book III (workers who have been unemployed for 12 months or more) are not legally entitled to the minimum wage in the first six month of their employment.
Rates for apprentices
Apprentices receive a minimum remuneration according to paragraph 17 of the Vocational Training Act (BBiG):
| 1st year | 2nd year | 3rd year | 4th year | |
| 2023 | €620 | €731 | €837 | €868 |
| 2024 | €649 | €766 | €876 | €909 |
Industry specific statutory minimum wages
In addition to the statutory minimum wage there are industry-specific minimum wages with wage levels above the statutory minimum wage negotiated by collective bargaining partners in ten industries (as of November 2023) which the federal government declared to be generally binding in accordance with the Posting of Workers Act (AEntG), the Temporary Employment Act (AÜG), or the Collective Bargaining Agreement Act (TVG). There are generally binding agreements for all employers active in the following industries: Temporary employment, vocational training and further education services, roofing trade, electrical trade, meat industry, building cleaning, painting and varnishing crafts, nursing industry, chimney sweep craft, security industry at commercial airports.
The statutory minimum wage in Germany is defined as an hourly wage independent of the number of hours worked. No rule on the number of monthly payments applies.
The German Minimum Wage Act does not define any components of the statutory minimum wage. Therefore, the legal situation is dependent on case law. This is not always clear. According to recent case law, the situation seems as follows (January 2024).
Not counting towards the minimum wage are capital-forming benefits, night work supplements (if paid in accordance with the Working Time Act), and special payments such as holiday pay if they are not linked to work performance but to vacation entitlement.
There is no clear legal situation when it comes to benefits in kind.
Generally, payments count towards the minimum wage if they are made in return for the work performed, including performance bonuses, piecework wages, bonuses for Sunday and public holiday work, shift bonuses as well as loyalty, representation, and attendance bonuses. Christmas and holiday pay is offset against the minimum wage if they are paid for work performed.
Deductions (e.g. for board and lodging) are not allowed.
With every decision on the minimum wage level, the German Minimum Commission publishes a mandatory report (Section 9 (4) of the Minimum Wage Act) on the “impact of the minimum wage on the protection of workers, conditions of competition, employment in regard to certain branches of industry and regions, as well as productivity” (Section 9 (4) of the Minimum Wage Act) accompanying its decision:
A large number of research articles oriented towards the topic of minimum wage is published every year in Germany. In addition to the reports accompanying each minimum wage setting decision (see section above), the Minimum Wage Commission regularly commissions research projects in relation to its minimum wage setting tasks.
Research on minimum wage related issues is also conducted at, among others, the Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI), the German Economic Institute (IW), the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), the ifo Institute, the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IAW), the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), the Leibniz Institute for Economic Research (RWI), or the Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW).
A link to the above-mentioned research institute is provided below.