German contributions 2026: four branches, two ceilings, one rate the statute gets wrong

Section 55 of the eleventh book of the German social code states the long-term care contribution rate without hedging: “Der Beitragssatz beträgt … bundeseinheitlich 3,4 Prozent der beitragspflichtigen Einnahmen der Mitglieder; er wird grundsätzlich durch Gesetz festgesetzt.” A uniform federal 3.4 per cent, set — the sentence says — in principle by legislation. ¹

It is not the rate anyone pays. The operative figure came by ordinance, which set the rate under § 55 Abs. 1 Satz 1 SGB XI “zum 1. Januar 2025 auf 3,6 Prozent der beitragspflichtigen Einnahmen der Mitglieder” — an increase of 0.2 percentage points on the rate applying at 31 December 2024, in force from 1 January 2025. ²

That is the first thing to internalise before costing a German hire against one anywhere else. The code carries the architecture; the ordinance carries the number.

The four branches

Pension has the cleanest paper trail. An annual announcement under § 158 Abs. 4 SGB VI states it in one sentence: “Der Beitragssatz für das Jahr 2026 beträgt weiterhin in der allgemeinen Rentenversicherung 18,6 Prozent und in der knappschaftlichen Rentenversicherung 24,7 Prozent.” The word doing the work is weiterhin — held, not changed. ⁴

Unemployment insurance is the opposite case: no annual instrument at all. § 341 Abs. 2 SGB III reads, in its entirety, “Der Beitragssatz beträgt 2,6 Prozent.” No year is attached, because a statutory rate runs until amended; the consolidated text carries a stamp of 24 July 2026. ⁵

Health insurance has two rates. § 241 SGB V gives the general one — “Der allgemeine Beitragssatz beträgt 14,6 Prozent der beitragspflichtigen Einnahmen der Mitglieder” — and the health ministry’s 2026 table repeats it alongside a reduced rate of 14.0 per cent that “gilt für Mitglieder, die keinen Anspruch auf Krankengeld haben”. The general rate buys sickness benefit from the 43rd day. ^{6 7}

Two ceilings, not one

Germany does not have a contribution ceiling. It has two, far apart. Under the Sozialversicherungsrechengrößen-Verordnung 2026, the general pension ceiling is EUR 8,450 a month and EUR 101,400 a year, up from EUR 8,050 a month in 2025; the miners’ ceiling is EUR 10,400 and EUR 124,800, up from EUR 9,900 a month. Health and care sit on a much lower base: EUR 5,812.50 a month and EUR 69,750 a year, against EUR 5,512.50 and EUR 66,150 in 2025. ⁸

Unemployment insurance has no ceiling of its own. § 341 Abs. 4 SGB III settles it in seven words: “Beitragsbemessungsgrenze ist die Beitragsbemessungsgrenze der allgemeinen Rentenversicherung.” It rides on the pension ceiling, EUR 8,450 a month. ^{5 8}

A third threshold is routinely confused with the second. The Versicherungspflichtgrenze in statutory health insurance is EUR 6,450 a month and EUR 77,400 a year for 2026, up from EUR 6,150 a month — a higher number than the assessment ceiling of EUR 5,812.50, doing a different job. The government page names it without defining it, so neither do we. The ceiling it does define: the maximum gross income on which health and care contributions are levied. ⁸

Contribution rates, their assessment ceilings and the resulting annual maximum, 2026

Branch	Rate	Ceiling / month	Ceiling / year	Max contribution / year
Pension, general	18.6	8,450.00	101,400	18,860.40
Pension, miners’ insurance	24.7	10,400.00	124,800	30,825.60
Unemployment	2.6	8,450.00	101,400	2,636.40
Health, general rate	14.6	5,812.50	69,750	10,183.50
Health, reduced rate	14.0	5,812.50	69,750	9,765.00
Care, member with one child	3.6	5,812.50	69,750	2,511.00

Rates in that table are the whole contribution on the assessment base, not an employer share. The sources verified for this piece state how the burden divides only for care insurance, set out below; for the other three they do not, so we assert no split.

The supplementary rate the statute does not carry

The care rate is the discrepancy an employer will notice. The health branch hides a second one.

The care ladder is entirely an employee-side variable

§ 55 SGB XI differentiates the care rate by children. The childless surcharge is “in Höhe von 0,6 Beitragssatzpunkten”, biting from the month after the member’s 23rd birthday. Going the other way, the rate falls by 0.25 contribution points for each child from the second to the fifth, until that child turns 25. ¹

The GKV-Spitzenverband publishes the resulting ladder with the employee share separated, and states the financing rule: “Die Beiträge werden grundsätzlich paritätisch von Arbeitgebern und Arbeitnehmern (Ausnahme in Sachsen) finanziert, den Zuschlag für Kinderlose tragen die Versicherten alleine. Beitragsabschläge kommen auch nur den Versicherten zugute.” ³

Care insurance by number of children: total rate, employee share and the residual employer share, outside Saxony

Member	Total	Employee	Employer
No children	4.20	2.40	1.80
One child (lifelong)	3.60	1.80	1.80
Two children	3.35	1.55	1.80
Three children	3.10	1.30	1.80
Four children	2.85	1.05	1.80
Five or more children	2.60	0.80	1.80

Two limits on that. The employee-share column is the non-Saxon one: the same page states that employees in Saxony bear a higher share, because the Buß- und Bettag holiday was never abolished there, and publishes no Saxon figures. And its heading reads “Beitragssatz seit 1. Januar 2025”; the page was last updated in April 2025.

What the 2026 ceilings actually cost

In absolute terms, an employee at or above both ceilings all year generates EUR 34,191.30 across the four branches at the general health rate and the care rate for a member with one child, before any supplementary rate (our arithmetic). For scale, the pension ceiling of EUR 101,400 is about 1.95 times provisional average pension earnings for 2026, EUR 51,944. ⁸

What to check before you sign the budget

Three checks, in the order they bite.

Get the supplementary rate from the fund, not from a summary. Nothing verified for this piece gives the rate a particular fund charges. Until you have it, treat any German employer-cost figure — the tables above included — as a floor.

Re-verify the care rate before the next payroll year. The ordinance setting 3.6 per cent is a 2025 instrument carrying no 2026 stamp. Nothing verified here records a later adjustment, and nothing verified here rules one out.

Then watch the two annual instruments rather than the code: the pension Bekanntmachung for the coming calendar year, and the Sozialversicherungsrechengrößen-Verordnung for the ceilings. For 2026 the pension rate was held and the ceilings raised — cheap for a low-paid workforce, dear for a high-paid one, because a ceiling increase is invisible across most of a payroll and concentrated at the top. An employer whose German headcount sits below EUR 5,812.50 a month felt none of it.