First of all, congratulations on your student job! Besides gaining experience in your new, future professional field, you are taking an essential step towards financial independence. Our salary calculator is tailored to working students to help you keep a clear head and know exactly how much salary is available at the end of the month.
This is because there are significant differences between working students’ salaries and non-student workers’ incomes. These include exemptions from unemployment and nursing care insurance. Due to the taxes employees must pay, a conventional gross-net calculator is unsuitable for students.
As a working student, you should observe some conditions and special regulations to get the maximum benefit from your job. After all, in addition to work experience, the salary also plays an important role, of course. Usually, students depend on financial support from their parents, BAföG, or a scholarship. As a working student, this changes. Watch out: You can work up to 20 hours during the semester and earn up to €950 per month without paying income tax.
Working students profit from reduced taxes
Just as for employees after a completed degree, it is important for working students to calculate their net salary in advance. Those who earn up to 450 euros a month retain the entire income. Small deductions are made from a higher income onwards.
As a working student, you can earn a variable hourly wage between the minimum wage and 20 Euro (currently the minimum wage in Germany is €12.82 per hour, 2025). The more advanced the studies, the higher the wage. However, how much a company pays also depends on the industry. Humanities students generally earn less than mechanical engineering or economics students.
If you earn more than 9 euros per hour, you will quickly reach 450 euros per month. With an average hourly wage of 10 euros for bachelor students, 45 hours a month is enough to get this amount. After that, there is a lot to consider!
Health insurance: This regulation applies to working students
If you are under 25 and have only had a mini-job, you have not yet had to worry about your health insurance. Because in Germany, you are family-insured until then. However, as soon as your monthly income exceeds 445 Euros, you must insure yourself. A cheap tariff for working students varies according to health insurance and scope of services. The average contribution of a student health insurance (KVdS) is 90 to 100 Euro per month.
A small calculation example shows that it is not always worthwhile to earn more than 450 euros because of health insurance. The following calculation assumes a health insurance amount of 100 Euros per month.
| Working hours per week | Gross (month) | Net (month) |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | €400 per month | €400 |
| 13 | €520 per month | €420 |
| 15 | €600 per month | €500 |
So with 13 hours per week, you work 12 hours more per month than with 10 hours a week, but only earn 20 euros more. In this case, the additional effort is not worth it. So calculate in advance exactly how much you will earn and how much will be left after deducting your health insurance.
Pay attention to wage tax
From a monthly income of 950 Euro gross, wage taxes are due. The flat-rate tax is 2 percent of the salary, but it is calculated according to individual wage tax deduction characteristics. Financial support from parents or BAföG as well as a scholarship are not included in the income. They therefore have no influence on whether you have to pay taxes or not.
Exemption from social security contributions
The biggest financial advantage of a working student job is the elimination of social security contributions. However, you only benefit from exemption from unemployment, health and nursing care insurance if you meet certain conditions.
As mentioned above, health insurance fees are incurred from an income of 450 Euro gross. From this amount on, you slip out of the family insurance.
The most important condition for the working student status is the working hours: the 20 hours per week may not be exceeded. Then you are not a working student for the health insurance company and have to insure yourself as an employee.
If you work full-time for a total of 182 calendar days over the year, you are no longer considered a working student and must pay the full social security contributions. The 20-hour rule is designed to ensure that you have enough time for your studies. During the semester break there are special regulations, and you can also work more than 20 hours a week.
Use the gross-net calculator as a working student
The gross-net and salary calculator is designed for working students and takes all special regulations into account. You only need to enter your salary, your age and the corresponding tax year to calculate your gross or net salary.
