Employees only pay contributions to the statutory pension, unemployment and health insurance up to a certain salary. Where the boundaries are.
You know it from your payroll: Every month, part of your salary does not flow to your account, but into the various social security, such as pension or health insurance.
However, these contributions are only charged up to a certain income limit. This so -called contribution ceiling changes every year. We show you what the height of the arithmetic variables depends on, where it currently lies for the various insurance companies and what it is all about with the compulsory insurance limit.
The contribution ceiling determines the amount of your income you have to pay contributions for statutory social security. It also decides on the maximum contribution to social security.
The part of the income that exceeds this limit is irrelevant for the calculation of the contributions. From this amount, you do not have to pay any further social security contributions.
But be careful: If your income exceeds the contribution ceiling, this does not mean that you no longer have to deposit in social security insurance such as pension or unemployment insurance. The only exception is the health and long-term care insurance.
If your income is high enough, you can choose whether you want to be privately insured instead of legally. From when this works, the so -called annual wage limit also regulates, also mentioned compulsory insurance (more on this below).
The Federal Government adapts the arithmetic sizes every year in the social security computing size -depending on how gross wages and salaries have developed. If the average income increases, the contribution ceiling and vice versa also increase.
There are two different values for the contribution ceiling: one for statutory pension and unemployment insurance as well as one for statutory health and long-term care insurance.
For statutory pension insurance the following contribution assessment limits apply:
- 2025: 8,050 euros/month nationwide (96,600 euros/year)
- 2024: 7,550 euros/month (90,600 euros/year) in the west, 7,450 euros/month (89,400 euros/year) in the east
For the scarce pension insurance, in which employees are insured in mining, the following contribution assessment limits apply:
- 2025: 9,900 euros/month (118,800 euros/year) nationwide
- 2024: 9,300 euros/month (111,600 euros/year) in the west, 9,200 euros/month (110,400 euros/year) in the east
For unemployment insurance, the same contribution ceiling applies as for pension insurance:
- 2025: 8,050 euros/month nationwide (96,600 euros/year)
- 2024: 7,550 euros/month (90,600 euros/year) in the west, 7,450 euros/month (89,400 euros/year) in the east
The contribution ceiling in health and long-term care insurance remains the same in the east as in the west:
- 2025: 5,512.50 euros/month (66,150 euros/year)
- 2024: 5,175 euros/month (62,100 euros/year)
The reference variety shows the average fee in Germany from the previous calendar year. It is used in social security for various calculations.
In 2025, the monthly reference size is 3,745 euros nationwide. In 2024, there were still different values for East and West in pension and unemployment insurance: In the west, the reference size was EUR 3,535 per month, in the east 3,465 euros. In health and long-term care insurance, the west value had long been nationwide.
How high your social security contributions are depends on the amount of your gross wages or content. They measure themselves based on a percentage that employers and employees usually share in half. Only with long -term care insurance workers without a child are asked to pay more.
The following contribution rates apply for 2025:
- Statutory pension insurance: 18.6 percent
- Minister of pension insurance: 24.7 percent
- Unemployment insurance: 2.6 percent
- Statutory health insurance: 14.6 percent
- Nursing insurance: 3.6 percent (for childless plus 0.6 percent)
The statutory health insurance also collects an additional contribution that you can determine yourself. In 2024, dozens of coffers had increased the contribution. Read here which. There will also be increases in 2025, since the average legal additional contribution increases from 1.7 percent to 2.5 percent.
Good to know: If it changes at your cash register, you can make use of your special right of termination. Read here exactly how to proceed.
In health and long-term care insurance, you have the choice between statutory health insurance (GKV) and private health insurance (PKV) from a certain income. The annual wage limit (Jaeg) decides how much you have to earn for this, as it is said in technical jargon. The more common term for this is the compulsory insurance limit.
In 2025, this limit is 6,150 euros a month or 73,800 euros a year. In 2024 there were still 69,300 euros a year or 5,775 euros a month. Like the contribution ceiling, the compulsory insurance limit is based on the wage level of the previous year.
If your income is below the compulsory insurance limit, you are automatically insured in the statutory health insurance company. If you are privately insured and slide back below the compulsory insurance limit, you can move back to the statutory cash register.
