Financing

Job Types

Jobbing? Get a good overview

You have to work while you study, but you're not sure what kind of job you can take on as a student without losing your child benefit, for example? Are you wondering whether you have to pay income tax or pension insurance contributions? And what about your health insurance if you work part-time? Questions upon questions.

It's better to find out beforehand

We want to shed some light on the subject and give you an initial overview. On this page, we will briefly introduce you to the different types of jobs. Under taxes and social security contributions, you'll find everything you need to know about each type of job in order to avoid mistakes when working while studying.

CampusOffice offers individual and personal help

If you need individual and personal help with jobs, the CampusOffice run by the AStA and the DGB is a good place to start. Working students can get advice here on labour law issues.

Marginal mini-jobs

Mini-jobs: you may also know them as 450-euro jobs.

Fortunately, the mini-job limit was raised to 520 euros as of 01.10.2022. Special payments such as Christmas or vacation bonuses are counted proportionately for each month worked and are included in the remuneration limit.

Short-term mini-jobs

Pay attention to the maximum duration

These are also called short-term jobs. It is important that you do not work more than three months or a total of 70 working days in the course of a calendar year. This can be three months at a time or 70 days spread over the year. The amount of earnings is irrelevant here.

Working student status, regular employment, midijob

Earnings are decisive

Working student status is a status within the social security system. It applies to all "regular students", i.e. students who are studying on a regular basis and are not on leave of absence, who work in a dependent job alongside their studies and do not have a mini-job (marginal or short-term).

As soon as your monthly employment is not marginal or short-term, it is a regular job. Due to your status as a working student, you will only be subject to pension insurance deductions, currently 9.3 per cent of your gross salary. If you earn more than 520 euros but less than 1,600 euros, it is a regular job with the possibility of a transitional area, where the pension insurance contribution increases according to income (so-called midijobs in the transitional area). From a salary of 1,600.01 euros, the full contribution to pension insurance is due.

Combination and change of job types

You have several jobs?

If you have to work several jobs, there are a few things to consider:

If several marginal mini-jobs are carried out in parallel, the work earnings are added together. If the total exceeds 5200 euros per month, all mini-jobs are subject to social insurance contributions. This means that deductions are made from the pension insurance.
In addition to regular employment, marginal employment is also possible.It is also possible to have a marginal job during your studies in addition to a short-term job. Both types of employment are not counted together.

In the case of marginal mini-jobs, it is important to note that the remuneration limit of 520 euros per month or 6.240 euros per year is not exceeded.

However, there are exceptions:

If the annual earnings as a mini-jobber amount to up to 6,240 euros due to fluctuating income, the earnings in individual months may also be more than the actual 520 euros.
However, if the annual earnings exceed 6,240 euros because more than 520 euros were earned in some months (from 01.10.2022 6,240 euros annual earnings and 520 euros monthly), it depends on whether this happened regularly and predictably or occasionally and not predictably. If it happens occasionally and unpredictably, i.e. up to two times in a 12-month period, the activity remains a mini-job. In such exceptional cases, the annual earnings may also be much more than 6,240 euros. However, if you regularly earn more than this, you must be reclassified as a regular employee with pension insurance contributions. For example, a replacement due to illness is considered "unforeseeable", while Christmas business is considered "foreseeable".
It is also possible to change from regular employment to a marginal mini-job and back if the remuneration falls below the 520 euro limit.

Not enough for you?

Would you like more information? Then take a look at the studis-online website or the website of the Deutsches Studierendenwerk. There you'll find extensive information on the topic of jobs.

The CampusOffice of AStA and DGB will be happy to advise you personally and individually.