German Student Welfare Body Fears Dropout Surge as Minijob Reform Looms
28.06.2026 - 01:50:55 | boerse-global.de
A proposal to make Germany’s millions of mini?jobs fully subject to social insurance contributions is drawing fire from university welfare bodies and the hospitality industry, even as unions and labor economists argue the change is long overdue. The plan, put forward by the government’s pension commission, would end the current exemption from social security payments for low?earning jobs – a model that has long been a lifeline for students and a backbone of the restaurant and hotel sector.
According to the German Student Welfare Association (DSW), roughly 63 percent of students depend on a side job to make ends meet. Most work in the mini?job format: at the current minimum wage of €13.90 an hour, they can earn up to €603 a month largely free of tax and social charges. The DSW warns that forcing social insurance contributions on the first euro earned would create a financial shock that could drive more students to quit their studies.
“Social insurance liability from the first euro could lead to massive financing problems,” DSW executive director Matthias Anbuhl said on June 27. The result, he argued, would be a rise in drop?out rates. The commission’s concept currently includes a special exemption only for school pupils, not for university students. Anbuhl noted that around 80 percent of mini?jobbers already actively opt out of the mandatory pension insurance scheme, and that for students earning above €1,000 a month social contributions are already due.
The reform also hits the hospitality sector hard. The German Hotel and Restaurant Association (Dehoga) in Saarland called it a “frontal assault on businesses.” In that state’s hospitality industry alone, one in every two of the roughly 20,000 employees works a mini?job. Nationwide, the figure is about 873,000 people in the sector. Employers warn that abolishing the model would deepen existing staff shortages.
Unions see it differently. The Food, Beverages and Catering Union (NGG) argues that mini?jobs offer no security in downturns – workers, for instance, have no claim to short?time working benefits (Kurzarbeitergeld) – and therefore backs full social insurance coverage from the first euro. Labor researcher Enzo Weber of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) agrees, saying the reform could dismantle the “mini?job trap” and make it easier for workers to move into regular, fully insured employment.
Separately, the government has announced a pension increase of 4.24 percent effective July 1, 2026. Mini?jobbers will have a one?time chance to revoke their exemption from pension insurance; for someone earning €603 a month, the monthly contribution would be about €22. At its convention on June 26–27, the German Trade Union Federation (DGB) presented its own pension concept. DGB leaders Yasmin Fahimi and Christiane Benner are calling for a pension level of 50 to 53 percent of average earnings, a compulsory company pension scheme, and no rise in the retirement age. They propose financing it through a wealth levy and also support ending the social insurance exemption for mini?jobs.
Other changes take effect in July: the income allowance for widows’ and widowers’ pensions rises to €1,122.53 a month, plus €238.11 per child. And a new road?traffic law bans commercial trading of penalty points in Flensburg, with fines of up to €30,000. The statute of limitations for traffic offences is extended from three to six months.
