What is marginal employment?
Minijobbers count as marginally employed. Marginal means that earnings or time limits are observed at work. On this basis, a distinction is made between €603 minijobs and short-term minijobs.
| €603 minijob | Short-term minijob | |
|---|---|---|
| Earnings | maximum €603 per month (€7,236 per year) | flexible |
| Number of working days | flexible | maximum 70 working days (3 months a year) |
| Frequency of work | regular | occasional |
In addition to the distinction between €603 minijobs and marginal employment, minijobs are categorised into commercial and household-related minijobs:
- Commercial minijobs are carried out within a company.
- In household-related minijobs, the staff help with everyday household tasks such as cooking, cleaning and shopping, but also with childcare and caring for relatives.
What happens if the maximum working time or earnings limit is exceeded?
Sometimes it can happen that a minijobber has worked too much in one month and exceeds the limit of a €603 minijob. As long as annual earnings do not exceed €7,236, however, that is not a problem.
That said, annual earnings of more than €7,236 can still fall under a minijob. That is the case when the overrun is unforeseeable and does not happen regularly (three times in twelve months). A pay rise or holiday cover is plannable and is not covered by this rule. Cover for sickness, on the other hand, counts as unforeseeable and is allowed to cause extra work.
Because the employer has to react immediately if the annual salary is exceeded, it is essential to keep an overview of your minijobbers' outstanding and completed working hours at all times. Clean documentation is also essential for inspections. In company audits, employers have to be able to produce exact records – if they cannot, penalties are possible.
With digital time tracking from clockin, documentation becomes child's play. You can also easily organise your employees' vacation, so you can plan for absences and cover early. That way you will never again face nasty surprises when tracking minijobbers' hours.
What basic rules apply to working time tracking for minijobbers?
Under Section 17 of the German Minimum Wage Act (Mindestlohngesetz), employers have to record the start, end and duration of daily working hours for all staff. However, this rule only applies to the industries listed in Section 2a of the German Act to Combat Undeclared Work (Schwarzarbeitsbekämpfungsgesetz). These are:
- the construction industry
- hospitality and accommodation
- passenger transport
- freight forwarding, transport and associated logistics
- the funfair and travelling show trade
- forestry businesses
- commercial cleaning
- companies involved in setting up and dismantling trade fairs and exhibitions
- the meat industry
- the prostitution trade
- security and guarding services
On top of that, all employers who employ minijobbers are obliged to record their working hours. So even if the business does not belong to one of the industries referred to in the Minimum Wage Act, the hours have to be documented.
At present, employers are given seven days to enter minijobbers' working hours retroactively. That will change, however, once the ECJ ruling on time tracking is written into German law. At the latest from then on, daily recording will be mandatory.Although the law leaves the form of time tracking to the employer, it is advisable to go for digital time tracking. That way you can record your minijobbers' working hours to the minute and plan their shifts better. You also benefit in other ways: time tracking via app is cheaper, more modern and more time-efficient than recording in Excel or on timesheets. Our checklist tells you whether your company is ready for digital time tracking:
Is the future of time tracking in minijobs digital?
In June 2022 the new law on minijob rules was passed. In it the obligation to track time digitally introduced. It applies to the industries in Section 2a of the German Act to Combat Undeclared Work and to companies with temporary workers and minijobbers.
The paragraph on mandatory electronic working time tracking was, however, struck from the law. For now, therefore, the old requirements for time tracking in minijobs continue to apply. That said, an obligation to record working time has been in place since September 2022, declared by the German Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht). Federal Labour Minister Hubertus Heil then presented the German government with a draft law on electronic time tracking. If this time tracking law is introduced, a big rush on providers and long waiting times are to be expected. So it is worth looking into the features of digital time tracking now, so that you are not left behind when it comes to implementation.
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