Germany Statutory social-insurance contributions (Sozialversicherungsbeiträge)
Germany's five statutory social-insurance branches: pension, unemployment, health, long-term care and the employer-only accident insurance. Employee and employer shares stated separately, each with its own contribution ceiling.
| Current value | 6 entries — see the API for the full schedule |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2026-01-01 |
| Official source | SGB VI § 341 Abs. 2 and § 168 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 (pension); SGB III § 341 Abs. 2 and § 346 Abs. 1 (unemployment); SGB V § 241, § 242, § 242a, § 249 Abs. 1 (health); SGB XI § 55 and § 58 with PBAV 2025 (care); SGB VII § 150 (accident); ceilings per Sozialversicherungsrechengrößen-Verordnung 2026 (BGBl. 2025 I Nr. 278 vom 24. November 2025, in force 1 January 2026), § 2 and § 4 |
| Last verified | 2026-08-08 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
TWO DIFFERENT CEILINGS, AND MIXING THEM IS THE CLASSIC GERMAN PAYROLL ERROR. Pension and unemployment contributions stop at the Beitragsbemessungsgrenze of EUR 8,450/month (EUR 101,400/year); health and long-term care stop at the lower EUR 5,812.50/month (EUR 69,750/year). Both are set for 2026 by the Sozialversicherungsrechengrößen-Verordnung 2026 (§ 4 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 and § 2), read directly from the consolidated Verordnung text. A THIRD NUMBER IS NOT A CEILING AT ALL: the Jahresarbeitsentgeltgrenze / Versicherungspflichtgrenze of EUR 6,450/month (EUR 77,400/year, § 2 SVBezGrV 2026 referring to § 6 Abs. 6 SGB V) is the threshold above which an employee may LEAVE the statutory scheme for private insurance. It is not a contribution ceiling and must never be used as one. THE CONSOLIDATED STATUTE STATES THE CARE RATE WRONGLY — a trap worth stating plainly. § 55 Abs. 1 SGB XI as published reads '3,4 Prozent' and is qualified 'vorbehaltlich des Satzes 2'; the operative rate is 3,6 Prozent, set by § 1 Abs. 1 of the Pflege-Beitragssatz-Anpassungsverordnung 2025 (BGBl. 2024 I Nr. 446) with effect from 1 January 2025. Anyone reading only the SGB XI text will be 0.2 points low. WHAT THE EMPLOYEE BEARS ALONE: the childless surcharge of 0.6 points (from the month after the 23rd birthday) is NOT matched by the employer, so a childless employee pays 2.4% of the 3.6% care contribution and the employer 1.2%. Parents of two to five children get 0.25 points off per child from the second, while that child is under 25. SAXONY IS DIFFERENT, AND THE REASON IS A PUBLIC HOLIDAY. Under § 58 Abs. 3 SGB XI the employee alone bears one extra percentage point in any Land that had NOT abolished a public holiday by 31 December 1993 — which is Saxony, the only Land that kept Buß- und Bettag (see this country's public-holidays series, where DE-SN carries that day). A Saxon employee therefore pays 2.8% of the care contribution (3.8% if childless) against the employer's 0.8%. The statute never names Saxony; it names the holiday test. HEALTH INSURANCE CANNOT BE ANSWERED WITH ONE NUMBER. The statutory general rate is 14.6% (§ 241 SGB V), but every Krankenkasse adds its own Zusatzbeitrag under § 242 SGB V — roughly 1.5 to 4.4 points across ~95 funds in 2026. We serve the general rate as a value and REFUSE the Zusatzbeitrag as a scalar, publishing only the 2026 statutory average of 2.9% (announced by the BMG under § 242a SGB V) clearly labelled as an average for statutory purposes. A real payroll needs the employee's own fund. ACCIDENT INSURANCE IS EMPLOYER-ONLY and has no national rate (Berufsgenossenschaft risk tariffs, § 150 SGB VII) — carried as a refused value so the branch is visibly present rather than silently absent. SCHEDULED CHANGE ALREADY IN THE STATUTE: § 223 SGB V now provides that the health-insurance Beitragsbemessungsgrenze for 2027 equals the § 6 Abs. 7 Jahresarbeitsentgeltgrenze INCREASED BY EUR 3,600 — a step-up beyond ordinary wage indexation. Re-verify this series when the Sozialversicherungsrechengrößen-Verordnung 2027 is promulgated (expect late November 2026). SCOPE: employee/employer shares of the five statutory branches for ordinary employment. Not modelled: Minijob/Übergangsbereich (Midijob) reduced-contribution bands, Künstlersozialkasse, civil servants (Beamte, outside the schemes entirely), voluntary and private insurance, Insolvenzgeldumlage and the U1/U2 Umlagen, and employer levies under the Schwerbehinderten- and Künstlersozialabgabe.
Get it programmatically
curl https://euroref.dev/v1/de/social-contributions
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://euroref.dev/v1/de/social-contributions/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://euroref.dev/provenance/de/social-contributionsBy subdivision
ISO 3166-2 — 1 subdivision held. A subdivision that does not appear below has NOT been researched, and must not be read as having no value: where a subdivision genuinely has none, it is listed with an explained null and a citation for the absence.
| Code | Subdivision | Value | Official source | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE-SN | Sachsen (Saxony) | 1 entry | § 58 Abs. 3 SGB XI | 2026-08-08 |
| Only the long-term-care split differs; pension, unemployment and health are identical to the federal position. A childless Saxon employee bears 2.9% (2.3 + 0.6) against the employer's 1.3%. | ||||
Other Germany series: Policy Rate (ECB Deposit Facility Rate) · Value Added Tax (Umsatzsteuer / Mehrwertsteuer) · Statutory Minimum Wage (Gesetzlicher Mindestlohn) · Public Holidays · Consumer Price Inflation (Verbraucherpreisindex, year-on-year) · Corporate Income Tax (Koerperschaftsteuer) · Personal Income Tax (Einkommensteuer) · ECB main refinancing operations rate (fixed rate) · Late-payment interest (EU Late Payment Directive) · VAT registration threshold (Kleinunternehmerregelung)