Low-earner threshold: when the employer pays all social security contributions alone

Normally, employer and employee share the social security contributions roughly half and half. § 20 (3) SGB IV makes an exception. For trainees whose pay does not exceed €325 per month and for participants in voluntary services, the employer pays all contributions alone. This covers all branches, from health insurance including the Zusatzbeitrag of the individual fund, through long-term care and pension insurance, to unemployment insurance.

The trainee is therefore fully insured, collects pension periods and has full health cover without paying a single cent of contributions from their own pay.

It covers trainees with low pay and participants in the voluntary social year, the voluntary ecological year and the Federal Volunteer Service. For voluntary services, the employer even bears the full burden regardless of the amount of pocket money.

Regular part-time workers and mini-jobbers are not covered. Marginal employment up to €603 per month follows its own rules with flat-rate contributions and without independent health cover. The difference is more than hair-splitting. A trainee below the low-earner threshold is a full member of the statutory fund, while a mini-jobber must be insured in another way, for example through family insurance. If the pay exceeds €325, even by one euro, the normal half-and-half split of contributions applies again to the whole pay.

Christmas bonus, holiday pay or bonuses do not change the status, even if the pay in the month of payment is above the threshold. The part of the pay that exceeds €325, however, is split half and half. With pay of €300 and a Christmas bonus of €300, €275 is therefore subject to normal contributions in the month of payment.

In practice, the trainee sees no deductions at all for eleven months and a small contribution item on the payslip in the month of the special payment. For employers, the distinction matters for payroll accounting. For the trainee, it remains a detail without consequences for their status.

Since the minimum training allowance was introduced in 2020, pay even in the first year of training has been well above €325, and the statutory minimum rate keeps rising every year. The low-earner threshold itself, on the other hand, has not been adjusted since 2003.

It keeps practical importance for voluntary services, for special cases such as shortened training with partial pay, and for correct payroll. If you are looking for the thresholds that decide the level of statutory contributions and access to private health insurance, you are really looking for two other values. These are the Beitragsbemessungsgrenze and the Jahresarbeitsentgeltgrenze (i)JAEG · JahresarbeitsentgeltgrenzeThe annual income threshold in Germany. Employees who earn more than this per year may leave statutory health insurance and switch to private health insurance.More about JAEG →.

The low-earner threshold almost never comes up with us as a topic of its own, but it regularly comes up as a mix-up. We know the patterns from our advice work. What people usually mean is the mini-job, the Jahresarbeitsentgeltgrenze (i) or the question of when a trainee may take out private insurance. The answer to the last one is sober. During training, compulsory insurance applies. The way into private health insurance only starts afterwards, with a salary above the Jahresarbeitsentgeltgrenze or with self-employment.

We recommend that young people with a clear prospect of private health insurance use the waiting years and secure their insurability early with an option plan. Your health today is the most valuable capital for your switch tomorrow.

Correct. The employer pays the full contribution, including the Zusatzbeitrag (i)ZusatzbeitragThe additional contribution each statutory health insurance fund charges on top of the general rate. Its level differs from fund to fund.More about Zusatzbeitrag → of the individual fund. The trainee has no deductions for social security. Only any tax remains unaffected.

Yes, for mandatory internships with pay of up to €325. The same rule applies there, and the employer bears the full burden. Voluntary internships follow other rules and can run as a mini-job or as normal employment, depending on the pay.

Not as comprehensive insurance. Trainees are subject to compulsory insurance, regardless of their pay. What is possible are private supplementary insurance policies and an option plan, which secures later entry into comprehensive insurance without new health questions.