Employer Cost Calculator Germany 2026
A gross salary is not what a position costs in Germany. On top come the employer share of social security, the U1, U2 and U3 levies and, depending on the trade, statutory accident insurance. This calculator lists the employer cost line by line and shows what the same salary leaves the employee after tax, including minijobs and midijobs.
Employer cost
EUR per month
Example calculation with default valuesView sources
Employment subject to social insurance: employer and employee split the contributions roughly in half, up to the contribution ceilings.
Next step:Work out the gross needed for a desired net payTurn this gross figure into your net pay
About the position
Regular gross pay without one-off payments. Choose per month or per year in the next field.
An annual salary is divided by 12; the calculator does not model 13th-month or holiday pay separately.
Changes only the employee net pay, not the employer cost.
Affects church tax (8 percent in Bavaria and Baden-WĂĽrttemberg, 9 elsewhere) and long-term care in Saxony, where the employer pays only 1.3 percent.
All of the employee’s children, including adults. They only affect the employee’s net: childless employees aged 23 and over pay a 0.6 point care surcharge; the employer does not.
Relevant only for the employee net pay.
For privately insured employees the employer pays a subsidy instead: half the premium, at most what it would pay under statutory insurance.
Set by each insurer, 2.9 percent on average in 2026. Employer and employee each pay half.
Mandatory for firms with no more than 30 employees (section 1 AAG). In return the insurer reimburses part of the sick pay the employer continues to pay.
Set by the employee’s health insurer, 0.8 to 4.9 percent in 2026. Default: Techniker Krankenkasse general rate, 2.1 percent.
Paid by every employer, 0.20 to 0.69 percent in 2026 depending on the insurer. Default: Techniker Krankenkasse, 0.44 percent.
Optional, percent of gross. It depends on the trade and its risk class and is billed once a year; often below 1 percent for office work, much more in construction. Default 0, because there is no honest average.
Optional: for example a company pension top-up, a transit pass or equipment. Added as entered.
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Side by side
Difference-2,348.10 EUR per month
Breakdown
- Gross salary
- 4,000 EUR per month
- Pension insurance (employer)
- 372 EUR per month
- Unemployment insurance (employer)
- 52 EUR per month
- Health insurance (employer)
- 350 EUR per month
- Long-term care (employer)
- 72 EUR per month
- Employer social contributions, total
- 846 EUR per month
- U1 levy
- 84 EUR per month
- U2 levy
- 17.60 EUR per month
- Insolvency levy (U3)
- 6 EUR per month
- Cost above gross
- 953.60 EUR per month
- Mark-up on gross
- 23.84 percent
- Employer cost per year
- 59,443.20 EUR per year
- Employee net pay
- 2,605.50 EUR per month
- Wage tax, solidarity surcharge and church tax (employee)
- 524.50 EUR per month
- Employee social contributions
- 870 EUR per month
- Share of the employer cost paid out net
- 52.60 percent
Good to know
Not included are costs the calculator cannot know: 13th-month and holiday pay, pay during sickness and vacation, the workplace, equipment, training and recruiting. If you are planning a budget, add these on top.
- U1 and U2 differ by insurer. The exact rate is on the website of the employee’s health insurer; for U1 the employer can often choose between several reimbursement levels.
- Accident insurance is set to 0. If your business pays a Berufsgenossenschaft contribution, enter it above as a percentage of gross.
Non-binding calculation with the 2026 contribution rates, ceilings and levy rates and the official 2026 wage tax program for the net pay. Assumptions: regular monthly salary without one-off payments, employee aged at least 23, minijob in the commercial sector. Not covered: minijobs in private households, apprentices, working students, several jobs, the factor method and collective agreement costs. Not a payslip and not tax advice.
The link carries your inputs, not the result: whoever opens it calculates with the current figures.
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How much does an employee cost an employer in Germany in 2026?
Below the contribution ceilings, a German employer pays about 21.2 percent of gross salary on top as its share of social security in 2026: pension 9.3 percent, unemployment 1.3 percent, health 7.3 percent plus half of the insurer top-up, and long-term care 1.8 percent. The U2 levy and the 0.15 percent insolvency levy come on top, and firms with up to 30 employees also pay the U1 levy. With this calculator’s defaults, a monthly gross of EUR 4,000 costs the employer EUR 4,953.60 a month.
The formula
Employer cost = gross salary + employer social contributions (pension 9.3 and unemployment 1.3 percent up to EUR 8,450 a month; health 7.3 percent plus half the top-up and long-term care 1.8 percent up to EUR 5,812.50 a month) + U1 levy + U2 levy + insolvency levy 0.15 percent (each on the pension-liable pay) + accident insurance + other costs. For a minijob instead: flat 15 percent pension, 13 percent health, 2 percent flat-rate tax and the Minijob-Zentrale levies.
Worked example
Example with the defaults: on 4,000 EUR gross a month, the employer pays 846 EUR in social contributions and 107.60 EUR in levies. The employer cost is therefore 4,953.60 EUR a month, 23.84 percent above gross. In tax class I the employee takes home 2,605.50 EUR, which is 52.60 percent of the employer cost.
Key figures for 2026
| Pension insurance | 9.3 percent employer share, up to EUR 8,450 gross a month (ceiling EUR 101,400 a year) |
|---|---|
| Unemployment insurance | 1.3 percent employer share, same ceiling |
| Health insurance | 7.3 percent plus half the top-up (average 2.9, so 1.45 percent), up to EUR 5,812.50 gross a month |
| Long-term care | 1.8 percent (Saxony 1.3); the childless surcharge is paid by the employee alone |
| U1 levy | Set by the insurer, only firms with up to 30 employees; minijob 0.80 percent |
| U2 levy | Set by the insurer, every employer; minijob 0.22 percent |
| Insolvency levy (U3) | 0.15 percent (section 360 SGB III), unchanged in 2026 |
| Commercial minijob | 13 percent health + 15 percent pension + 2 percent tax + 1.17 percent levies = 31.17 percent |
Figures verified:
What makes up the cost of an employee in Germany
The gross salary is only the starting point. In Germany employers and employees fund social security together, and the employer’s share never appears on the employee’s payslip. In 2026 it is 9.3 percent for pension insurance, 1.3 percent for unemployment insurance, 7.3 percent for health insurance plus half of the insurer’s top-up, and 1.8 percent for long-term care. With the average top-up of 2.9 percent that adds up to about 21.2 percent of gross.
Contributions are owed only up to the ceilings: EUR 8,450 a month for pension and unemployment, EUR 5,812.50 for health and long-term care. Above those amounts the employer cost rises only by the extra gross, which is why the percentage mark-up falls for high salaries. The long-term care surcharge for childless employees is paid by the employee alone and does not change the employer cost.
Three levies come on top. U1 funds the reimbursement of sick pay and is mandatory only for firms with no more than 30 employees. U2 covers maternity costs and applies to every employer. The health insurer sets both rates. The third, the insolvency levy, is a uniform 0.15 percent in 2026 and is paid to the health insurer along with the social contributions. Statutory accident insurance is billed once a year and depends on the trade.
For a minijob up to EUR 603 a month the employer pays flat rates: 15 percent pension, 13 percent health if the minijobber has statutory insurance, 2 percent flat-rate tax and the Minijob-Zentrale levies, 31.17 percent in total in 2026. In a midijob between EUR 603.01 and 2,000 the employee pays reduced contributions. The relief is funded by the employer, who pays the rest of the total contribution and, at the bottom of the zone, clearly more than half.
Next to the cost the calculator shows the employee’s net pay, computed with the same official 2026 wage tax program as the German net salary calculator. You see which part of what a position costs actually reaches the employee’s account. If you start from the net pay a candidate expects, the net to gross calculator gives you the gross you need to offer.
Frequently asked questions
- What percentage does a German employer pay on top of gross salary?
- Below the contribution ceilings about 21.2 percent in social contributions at the average top-up rate, plus the levies: U2 and the insolvency levy together usually under 1 percent, and in small firms the U1 levy of roughly 1 to 4 percent. Realistically the mark-up is about 22 to 25 percent of gross, and lower for salaries above the ceilings.
- What does an employee on EUR 3,000 gross cost?
- With this calculator’s defaults (top-up 2.9 percent, U1 2.1 percent, U2 0.44 percent, no accident insurance) about EUR 3,715 a month, or roughly EUR 44,580 a year. Enter your own firm’s rates above to get the exact figure.
- What does a minijobber cost an employer in 2026?
- In a commercial minijob 31.17 percent on top of pay: 13 percent health, 15 percent pension, 2 percent flat-rate tax, 0.80 percent U1, 0.22 percent U2 and 0.15 percent insolvency levy. At the full EUR 603 limit that is EUR 790.95 a month, plus accident insurance.
- Does the employer pay the childless surcharge?
- No. The 0.6 point long-term care surcharge for childless employees aged 23 and over is paid by the employee alone, and the reductions for parents of several children only affect the employee share too. The employer share stays at 1.8 percent, 1.3 percent in Saxony.
- Does every employer pay the U1 levy?
- No, only firms with usually no more than 30 employees, with part-timers counted pro rata (section 3 AAG). In return the insurer reimburses part of the salary paid during an employee’s sickness. The U2 maternity levy, by contrast, is paid by every employer regardless of size.
- Are these all the costs of an employee?
- No. The calculator covers gross pay, social contributions, levies, the minijob flat-rate tax and, if you enter them, accident insurance and other monthly items. 13th-month and holiday pay, the workplace, equipment, training and recruiting depend on the business and are deliberately not estimated here.
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As of (tax year 2026) · last verified:
Sources:
- BMAS: Sozialversicherungs-Rechengrößen 2026
- § 20 SGB IV (Übergangsbereich)
- § 1, § 7 AAG (Umlagen U1 und U2)
- § 358, § 360 SGB III (Insolvenzgeldumlage)
- § 249b SGB V (Pauschalbeitrag KV im Minijob)
- § 172 SGB VI (Arbeitgeberanteil RV im Minijob)
- § 40a EStG (Pauschsteuer 2 %)
- Minijob-Zentrale: Minijob-Beiträge 2026 (U1 0,80 %, U2 0,22 %, 31,17 %)
- Techniker Krankenkasse: Umlagesätze U1 und U2 2026
- Deutsche Rentenversicherung: Insolvenzgeldumlage
Scope of review: formulas and reference values were checked against the sources listed above, by the Nomado24 editorial team. What is verified is the calculation logic, not your personal situation. Not tax or legal advice.