Legal guide
Employing a working student in Germany
Last updated:
You may employ anyone properly enrolled at a university as a working student, as long as studying remains their main occupation. During lecture periods the limit is 20 hours per week. Stay inside it and you pay only the 9.3 percent pension share, with no health, nursing care or unemployment contributions.
Who may be employed as a working student
- Proper enrolment at a university or university of applied sciences. Guest students, preparatory-course participants and doctoral candidates without enrolment do not qualify.
- Studying remains the main occupation. That is the actual test, and the 20-hour limit is simply how it is applied in practice.
- Not employment inside a dual study programme in the narrow sense, which follows its own rules.
- No leave semester and no completed degree. The exemption ends the moment enrolment ends, including mid-month.
- From the 25th subject semester onward, or past the standard period of study, health insurers look harder at whether studying really still comes first.
Age is irrelevant
There is no age limit for the Werkstudentenprivileg. The age limit of 25 concerns students' own contribution-free family health insurance, not your obligations as an employer.
The 20-hour rule and its exceptions
During lecture periods a working student may work at most 20 hours per week, counted across all employers together. Ask about other jobs during the interview. The limit is not negotiable: exceed it regularly and the exemption falls away, with full contributions due retroactively from the point the limit was crossed.
| Situation | Permitted hours | Exemption survives |
|---|---|---|
| Lecture period, standard | Up to 20 hours per week | Yes |
| Lecture period, mainly evenings, nights or weekends | More than 20 hours possible | Yes, as long as studying remains the main occupation |
| Semester break | Up to full-time, no hour cap | Yes |
| More than 26 weeks above 20 hours within 12 months | No longer possible as a working student | No, full contributions apply |
| Lecture period, permanently above 20 daytime hours | Not permitted | No, full contributions apply |
As of 2026. The 26-week rule corresponds to 182 calendar days within any twelve-month period.
In practice: a role with 20 weekly hours during the semester and full-time during breaks is straightforward. A role that permanently runs 30 daytime hours is not a working-student role but a part-time job with full contributions, whatever the contract calls it.
Which contributions are due
The exemption comes from section 6(1) no. 3 SGB V for health and nursing care insurance and from section 27(4) SGB III for unemployment insurance. Pension insurance liability always remains.
| Contribution | Employer share | Employee share |
|---|---|---|
| Pension insurance | 9.3% | 9.3% |
| Health insurance | none | none |
| Nursing care insurance | none | none |
| Unemployment insurance | none | none |
| U1, U2 and insolvency levies | around 1.5% | none |
| Accident insurance | employer in full | none |
Levy rates depend on the health insurer and company size. As of 2026.
Payroll tax is withheld through the ELStAM system as for any other employee. In tax class I the working student stays tax-free up to the basic allowance of 12,348 euros per year, about 1,029 euros per month. Anything withheld above that is usually recovered through the annual tax return, which does not affect you as the employer but comes up in almost every interview.
Below 603 euros it is a Minijob instead
If monthly pay stays under the 603 euro threshold, the role is a Minijob with flat-rate employer charges of roughly 30 percent. At the 13.90 euro minimum wage that threshold is reached after about 43 hours per month.
What belongs in the contract
- An explicit description as working-student employment, referencing current enrolment.
- Weekly working time capped at 20 hours during lecture periods, written out explicitly.
- A semester-break clause allowing more hours without a contract amendment.
- An obligation on the employee to report de-registration, leave semesters, graduation and other jobs without delay.
- Submission of the enrolment certificate at the start of each semester.
- The hourly rate, at least the statutory minimum wage of 13.90 euros.
- Paid leave. A five-day week carries 20 days per year, fewer working days pro rata.
- A fixed term where wanted. Graduation alone is not a valid reason for a fixed term, but a material reason or a calendar-based fixed term under the TzBfG is.
When the exemption falls away
The health insurer checks this as the collecting agency, and at the latest the German pension insurance does during its audit every four years. Where the exemption was applied wrongly, the employer owes the full contributions retroactively, both the employer share and usually the employee share as well, because the employee share may only be deducted from pay for the last three months.
- De-registration or graduation, from the following day.
- A leave semester, unless studying exceptionally continues.
- Permanently exceeding 20 hours during lecture periods.
- More than 26 weeks above 20 weekly hours within twelve months.
- A missing enrolment certificate in the personnel file, because the proof is then absent.
- Employment inside a part-time or dual study programme, which follows its own rules.
The cheapest protection is a calendar reminder
Set two recurring reminders per working student: early April and early October for the new enrolment certificate. Most back-payment claims arise not from intent but because nobody noticed that someone finished their degree months ago.
International students
Students from the EU, the EEA and Switzerland have unrestricted labour market access and follow the same rules as German students. Students from third countries may work 140 full or 280 half days per calendar year under section 16b of the Residence Act. A 20-hour working-student role fits within that allowance.
- You need no separate employment permit. Ask to see the residence title and document its conditions.
- The 140-day limit applies in addition to the 20-hour rule and independently of it. Both must hold at the same time.
- Days spent on a mandatory internship do not count against the allowance.
- A half day covers up to four hours. Two half days consume one full day of the allowance.
Post the role with confidence
You know the frame now. Put the role in front of the students who are looking for exactly it.
Post a job