Different Types of Payroll Accounting for Students
In general, we distinguish between three types of payroll accounting:
Short-term employment (Kurzfristige Beschäftigung)
Working student employment (Werkstudentische Beschäftigung)
Full social security employment (Voll sozialversicherungspflichtig)
Short-term Employment
Short-term employment occurs when the employment is limited from the outset to no more than three months or a total of 70 working days per calendar year and is not pursued "professionally." The amount of earnings is irrelevant. No social security contributions are due for short-term accounting. All short-term employments are always reported to the Bundesknappschaft (Minijob-Zentrale). For short-term employment, it is mandatory to provide a currently valid certificate of enrollment (Studienbescheinigung).
Wage Tax (Lohnsteuer)
Wage tax, on the other hand, can still apply to short-term employment. Whether wage tax is actually incurred depends on the amount of earnings and your tax bracket (Lohnsteuerklasse). Wage tax is a tax on non-self-employed work. It usually applies to every employee and must be paid by the employer directly to the tax office. The tax office assumes 30 tax days per month. During the projection, your gross wages are extrapolated to these 30 tax days.
Important: There are no wage tax privileges for students! Working students and short-term employees often pay slightly higher taxes than employees subject to full social security if their gross earnings are identical, as social security contributions can have a tax-reducing effect. However, "overpaid" wage tax can be reclaimed from the tax office via a tax return at the end of the year.
Working Student Employment
Once the 70 short-term days per year are exhausted, the option of working student employment becomes available. For this, a valid certificate of enrollment is mandatory.
Social Security: Pension insurance (RV) contributions are deducted. Contributions to health, long-term care, and unemployment insurance are not required, provided you are insured as a student.
Health Insurance: If you have private or foreign insurance, we must register you with a statutory health insurance provider (GKV) for this period (e.g., Techniker Krankenkasse).
20-Hour Rule: As a working student, you are not allowed to work more than 20 hours per week during the lecture period.
Special Regulation: Working During Lecture-Free Periods (Semester Breaks)
During the official lecture-free periods of your university, an exception to the 20-hour rule applies. During this time, you are allowed to work more than 20 hours per week (full-time) without losing your working student status in terms of social security.
Please Note:
This regulation only applies to periods explicitly designated as lecture-free by your university.
The employment remains under working student accounting (only pension insurance applies) as long as the nature of the work fits within this framework.
However, if you work more than 20 hours per week for more than 26 weeks (182 calendar days) within a rolling 12-month period, the working student privilege expires, and you will be subject to full social security contributions.
Full Social Security Employment
If neither short-term nor working student employment is possible (e.g., because the 26-week limit has been exceeded or student status no longer applies), payroll is processed with full social security contributions. In this case, contributions are paid into all four branches: Health, Pension, Unemployment, and Long-term care insurance (KV, RV, AV, PV). As with working student employment, we must register you with a statutory health insurance provider if you have private or foreign insurance.