minimum wage
noun · Mindestlohn
The German Mindestlohn is unwaivable: an agreement below it is ineffective and a declared waiver by the employee is void, which is why blanket limitation clauses in employment contracts regularly fail. The figure does not stand in the Act but in a regulation, and it rose to 13.90 euros gross per hour on 1 January 2026 with a further step to 14.60 euros already fixed for 2027.
Which translation, when
Why
Minimum wage translates as Mindestlohn, and three features make the German regime harder than the word suggests. The first is unwaivability. The statutory minimum may not be undercut, limited or excluded, and an agreement doing so is ineffective to that extent. The employee cannot simply give the claim up either: a waiver of an accrued entitlement is possible only through a settlement recorded in court, any other waiver is excluded, and the claim cannot be lost through delay. The practical consequence reaches beyond wage clauses, because a contractual exclusion clause drafted to catch all claims arising from the employment relationship will, on the case law of the Federal Labour Court, capture the minimum wage too and can therefore be invalid as a whole, leaving the employer exposed to the ordinary three-year limitation period instead of a short contractual one. The second feature is where the number lives. The Act itself names only a starting figure and provides that the amount may be changed by government regulation on the proposal of the Mindestlohnkommission, so anyone who reads the statute alone will quote a rate that has long been overtaken. Since 1 January 2026 the rate is 13.90 euros gross per hour, and the adjustment regulation already fixes 14.60 euros from 1 January 2027, which means a translation of any wage document is a dated document and should say so. The third feature is enforcement. A principal commissioning works or services answers for the minimum-wage claims of employees of his subcontractors, a liability taken over from the posting-of-workers regime and a real risk in construction and logistics chains; in defined sectors the beginning, end and duration of daily working time must be recorded, and breaches carry substantial fines. Sector minimum rates fixed under collective machinery may lie above the general rate, in which case they prevail, and the collective instrument behind them is held by the collective agreement entry.
Typical mistakes
- The minimum wage cannot be waived, so an exclusion clause covering all claims may be void in its entirety rather than merely ineffective for the wage.
- The rate is set by regulation and not by the Act, so quoting the figure from the statute produces an outdated number.
- A principal answers for the minimum-wage claims of his subcontractors’ employees, so treating the obligation as confined to the direct employer understates the exposure.
What matters
Reviewing a German employment contract for a foreign employer: the check should confirm the hourly rate against the regulation in force, exclude the minimum wage expressly from any limitation clause, and flag subcontractor liability where services are bought in.
What the machine misses
A machine version of minimum wage gives Minimallohn or Mindestgehalt, neither of which the statute uses, and the term is the Mindestlohn, unwaivable and set by regulation rather than in the Act itself; the wrong word also hides that an exclusion clause catching all claims can be void for capturing it.
Examples
| the statutory minimum wage | der gesetzliche Mindestlohn |
| a waiver is void | ein Verzicht ist unwirksam |
| gross per hour worked | brutto je Zeitstunde |
| liability of the principal | die Auftraggeberhaftung |