Employment Law2026-10-16

Mini-jobs in 2026: earnings limit, minimum wage, holiday and protection against dismissal

The mini-job limit rises to 603 euros in 2026 because the minimum wage goes up. What that means in practice for your pay, your holiday and your protection against dismissal as a mini-jobber.

You work on a mini-job basis, or you employ someone on a 538-euro or 556-euro basis, and you are wondering what changes in 2026. The headline figure is quickly stated – the interesting part comes with the questions that follow. What happens if I accidentally earn more? Do I have any holiday entitlement at all as a mini-jobber? And can I be dismissed like any other casual worker, or does the same protection against dismissal apply to me as to a full-time employee?

In brief

The mini-job earnings limit rises to 603 euros per month on 1 January 2026, because since 2022 it has been tied by law to the minimum wage – and the minimum wage goes up to 13.90 euros on the same date. Mini-jobbers nonetheless enjoy almost all employee rights in full: pro-rata holiday, continued pay during sickness, holiday pay for public holidays, and, after six months’ service in businesses with more than ten employees, ordinary protection against dismissal. The real pitfalls lie in the detail: short-term employment, the “work on call” fiction, and the question of how often the limit may be exceeded without losing mini-job status.

How I can help you

Checking whether your mini-job contract correctly reflects the new limit and the right type of employment (marginal pay or short-term)
Enforcing holiday, continued-pay and public-holiday entitlements, which in mini-jobs are often simply not paid
Reviewing a dismissal or a change to your working hours for validity and compliance with notice periods
Clarifying whether a “work on call” clause tips your mini-job over in terms of social insurance
Representing you vis-à-vis your employer, the Minijob-Zentrale or before the labour court

The new limit: 603 euros, and why it moves every year

Since the 2022 reform, the mini-job limit is no longer a fixed figure but is calculated by reference to the statutory minimum wage (§ 8 Abs. 1a SGB IV). The formula is: minimum wage times 130, divided by 3, rounded up to the nearest euro. With the minimum wage of 13.90 euros from 1 January 2026, that works out at 602.33 euros – rounded up, therefore, 603 euros per month. If the minimum wage rises further in 2027, the limit rises automatically with it, without the legislature having to step in again.

The key point is this: the limit applies as an average over twelve months, not as a rigid monthly ceiling. If your earnings fluctuate – for instance because you put in more hours in one month – that is not a problem, as long as the annual average stays at 7,236 euros. If you exceed the limit unexpectedly, say through spontaneous extra work or a one-off bonus, the law expressly allows it: under § 8 Abs. 1b SGB IV an unforeseeable overshoot does not harm your mini-job status, as long as it happens in no more than two calendar months within the relevant twelve-month period and the limit is not exceeded by more than its own amount in each of those months – so a maximum of around 1,206 euros in those two months. If, on the other hand, you exceed the limit regularly or in a way that can be planned, you automatically move into employment subject to social insurance, or into the transitional range (603.01 to 2,000 euros), with corresponding contribution deductions.

Short-term employment: the other type of mini-job

Holiday and seasonal workers often fall not under the 603-euro limit but under short-term employment within the meaning of § 8 Abs. 1 Nr. 2 SGB IV. Here it is not the pay that matters but the duration: the employment may last no more than three months or 70 working days in the calendar year, whether in one block or added together across several employers. In agriculture a longer limit of 15 weeks or 90 working days applies. The pay is irrelevant here – a six-week holiday job paying 2,000 euros in total remains short-term and therefore free of social insurance (income tax is still payable). One important exception: anyone who carries out the activity on a professional basis – that is, who depends on such short assignments as their main occupation, for example because they are otherwise not in employment – and who exceeds the ordinary mini-job limit while doing so, no longer counts as being in short-term employment and becomes subject to social insurance.

Holiday, sickness, public holidays: full rights despite few hours

Mini-jobbers are employees like any other – employment law draws no distinction here from a full-time post. The statutory minimum holiday under the Federal Holiday Act (Bundesurlaubsgesetz) is also due to mini-jobbers, adjusted to the actual distribution of their working days. Anyone who starts part-way through the year or leaves in the first half of the year receives, under § 5 BUrlG, one twelfth of the annual holiday for each full month of employment; part-days of at least half a day are rounded up.

Continued pay in the event of sickness also applies without restriction: under § 3 EFZG, once the employment relationship has existed without interruption for four weeks, there is an entitlement to up to six weeks’ continued pay in the event of illness through no fault of your own – calculated on the basis of your actual mini-job earnings, not on some notional number of hours. The same applies to public holidays that fall on a regular working day. In practice this is precisely what often simply goes unpaid in mini-jobs, because employers assume that “marginal” also means “reduced rights”. That is wrong.

Protection against dismissal: when it applies, and the on-call trap

The same notice periods apply to the dismissal of a mini-jobber as to any other employee: by law, at least four weeks to the 15th or the end of the month (§ 622 Abs. 1 BGB), with periods that increase with length of service where the employer gives notice. General protection against dismissal under the Protection Against Dismissal Act (Kündigungsschutzgesetz) applies where two conditions are met together: the employment relationship has existed without interruption in the business for more than six months, and the business as a rule employs more than ten workers. In counting towards this ten-person threshold, part-time and mini-job staff are not simply counted as full heads but pro rata under § 23 Abs. 1 KSchG: up to 20 hours a week with a factor of 0.5, up to 30 hours a week with 0.75, and above that in full. A business with many mini-jobbers therefore often reaches the ten-person threshold later than the headcount would suggest – which, in case of doubt, is well worth working out. Regardless of the threshold, § 4 TzBfG prohibits treating mini-jobbers less favourably than comparable full-time staff purely because of their shorter hours, without an objective reason – and that extends to benefits, allowances and access to training.

A trap that is often overlooked in practice lies in “work on call”. If the mini-job contract does not fix a weekly number of working hours but only specifies “as required”, § 12 TzBfG applies: the law then deems the working time to be 20 hours a week. At the minimum wage of 13.90 euros, that works out at around 1,200 euros a month – almost double the mini-job limit. Anyone who enters into such a contract without a fixed number of hours thereby risks losing mini-job status retrospectively and becoming fully liable for social insurance. Mini-job contracts on an on-call basis therefore absolutely need an expressly agreed, low number of weekly hours.

Example case

A sales assistant has worked on a mini-job basis for two years in a florist’s shop with eight staff in total, including three other mini-jobbers each working up to 15 hours a week. The contract fixes no weekly number of hours, only “according to operational requirements”. After an illness she receives no continued pay, because the employer takes the view that this only applies to “proper” employees. Two problems at a glance: first, because there is no agreed number of hours, there is a considerable risk that, for social-insurance purposes, 20 hours a week will be deemed to apply and the mini-job will tip over. Second, despite the mini-job she has a full entitlement to six weeks’ continued pay, which the employer is wrongly refusing.

Common mistakes

Entering into employment contracts without a fixed weekly number of hours, thereby unwittingly triggering the on-call fiction of § 12 TzBfG
Assuming that holiday, continued pay or public-holiday pay are not due to mini-jobbers, or are due only in reduced form
Treating the mini-job limit as a rigid monthly ceiling rather than an annual average, and thereby needlessly putting the status at risk
Counting part-time and mini-job staff as full heads rather than pro rata when assessing the protection-against-dismissal threshold
Submitting the application to be exempted from compulsory pension insurance too late, and thereby losing contribution months

Frequently asked questions

How much may I earn per month in a mini-job in 2026?

From 1 January 2026 the earnings limit is 603 euros per month, or 7,236 euros per year. It applies as an annual average, so individual months with higher earnings are permitted, as long as the average works out.

What happens if I exceed the limit on one occasion?

An unforeseeable overshoot is harmless in no more than two calendar months within the relevant twelve-month period, as long as the limit is not exceeded by more than its own amount in each case. If you exceed it beyond that regularly or in a way that can be planned, you become subject to social insurance, or you move into the transitional range.

Do I have a holiday entitlement in a mini-job?

Yes, in the full statutory amount, pro rata to the actual distribution of your working days. If you start or end the mini-job part-way through the year, you receive one twelfth of the annual holiday for each full month of employment.

Can I be dismissed in a mini-job just like anyone else?

The ordinary statutory notice periods apply. Protection against dismissal under the Protection Against Dismissal Act only takes effect after six months’ service, and only where the business as a rule employs more than ten workers, with part-time and mini-job staff counted pro rata.

Do I have to pay into the pension scheme?

Mini-jobbers are in principle subject to compulsory pension insurance, with a small contribution of their own, but can apply to their employer in writing or electronically to be exempted. Under certain conditions the exemption takes effect retrospectively from the month in which the application is received.

Your next step

If you are a mini-jobber currently holding a notice of dismissal and do not know whether protection against dismissal even applies at your business, every day now counts – check the first steps after a dismissal before deadlines slip by unused.

This article provides general information and is no substitute for legal advice in an individual case. Last updated: 2026-10-16.

This article was written by Christian Czirnich, a German Rechtsanwalt (lawyer) since 1994, Kirchseeon (district of Ebersberg). He advises employees, executives and small businesses in employment law, with clients from the district of Ebersberg, east Munich and the Rosenheim area, in English or German and by video on request.

Christian Czirnich, Rechtsanwalt (attorney at law), Kirchseeon near Munich

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