Minimum wage, leave, sick pay: your rights in a minijob

Yes. The Minimum Wage Act applies to all employees, regardless of how many hours they work (section 1 MiLoG). In a minijob that means at least €13.90 for every hour worked in 2026 and at least €14.60 from 2027.

Exceptions are set out in section 22 MiLoG. They mainly cover young people under 18 without completed vocational training, apprentices, certain compulsory and short orientation internships, volunteers and the long-term unemployed during the first six months of a new job. For most minijobbers the minimum wage applies without restriction.

You cannot validly waive the minimum wage, and contract clauses that undercut it are ineffective to that extent (section 3 MiLoG). A fixed monthly wage is allowed as long as, divided by the hours actually worked, it reaches the minimum wage.

The Federal Leave Act guarantees at least 24 working days a year, counted on a six-day week (section 3 BUrlG). That is four weeks. If you work fewer days, the entitlement is converted pro rata: working days per week times 24, divided by 6. If you work two days a week, you have at least eight days of leave, which again gives four weeks off.

During your leave you keep receiving your average earnings (section 11 BUrlG). You acquire the full entitlement after six months in the job; before that you are entitled to one twelfth for each full month. If comparable full-time staff get more leave under a contract or collective agreement, that applies to you pro rata as well, because part-time employees must not be treated less favourably (section 4 TzBfG).

Yes. Under the Continued Remuneration Act, the employer keeps paying the wage you would have earned during incapacity for work for up to six weeks (section 3 EFZG). The condition is that your employment has already lasted four weeks without interruption. This applies to a minijob just as to any other job.

Report sick as early as possible. If the illness lasts longer than three calendar days, you need a doctor’s certificate by the following working day at the latest; the employer may also ask for it earlier (section 5 EFZG). For statutorily insured employees, the employer usually retrieves the certificate electronically from the health insurer; private households are excluded from this procedure.

Worth knowing: after the six weeks there is no sickness benefit from the minijob, because the minijob itself does not create an entitlement to it. Small businesses with up to 30 employees have most of the sick pay reimbursed through the U1 levy, so the cost is manageable for many employers.

Yes. If a working day is cancelled because of a statutory public holiday, the employer must pay the wage you would have earned that day (section 2 EFZG). This applies if you would otherwise have worked that day. If you always work on Mondays, for example, Easter Monday is paid; if you never work on Mondays, it creates no additional entitlement.

The employer may not simply make you work the cancelled holiday hours at another time. Holiday pay counts toward your earnings like normal pay, and therefore toward the minijob limit.

The employer must give you the essential working conditions, such as pay, working time and leave, in writing (Evidence Act, Nachweisgesetz). Dismissal is subject to the statutory notice periods, as a rule four weeks to the 15th or to the end of a month (section 622 of the Civil Code, BGB). After six months, in businesses with more than ten employees, the Dismissal Protection Act also applies.

Maternity protection, parental leave and protection against discrimination apply in a minijob too. And because a minijob is in principle subject to pension insurance, you build up contribution periods for your pension unless you opt out.

A factual conversation often helps first, ideally with your time records and your employment contract at hand. The Federal Ministry of Labour’s citizens’ hotline answers questions about the minimum wage on +49 30 60 28 00 28. Customs (Zoll) is responsible for enforcing the minimum wage.

Outstanding wage claims generally become time-barred three years after the end of the year in which they arose. Many employment contracts, however, contain shorter cut-off periods; they do not apply to the minimum wage itself. In a concrete dispute, trade unions, advice centres or a specialist employment lawyer can help.