Working hours and mini-jobs – employers must now pay attention to this

Mini-jobs are booming in Germany like never before. Mini-jobs are also accompanied by special regulations that must be observed by employers and employees alike.

Currently, the earnings limit for a mini-job is €450.00 per month, but is to be increased to €520.00 in future, as it will be based on minimum wage conditions from October 1, 2022 with 10 hours per week. Due to an agreement in the coalition agreement, the minimum wage will increase to €12.00 per hour from this date.  Employers who employ mini-jobbers must also document their working hours, depending on the industry, but do not have to pay taxes or other contributions. The employer pays a fixed amount of 30 percent, which includes wage tax and insurance contributions. It is worth mentioning at this point that a mini-jobber has the same vacation entitlement as any other employee, which is at least 24 working days per year (based on a 6-day week).

The obligation to record working hours applies in principle to all sectors under Section 2a SchwarzArbG, which are subject to the immediate reporting obligation under the Minimum Wage Act (Section 17 (1) MiLoG). This includes the following economic sectors or industries:

• Gastronomy and accommodation
• Construction industry
• Passenger transportation industry, freight forwarding industry, transportation industry
• Logistics industry
• Acting industry
• Cleaning industry, building cleaning
• Forestry
• Meat industry
• Companies in the construction and dismantling of trade fairs and exhibitions

Due to the Minimum Wage Reporting Ordinance (MiLoMeldV), there may be deviations from the recording obligation for employers based abroad in addition to the basic Minimum Wage Act. Industry-specific recording obligations may apply in an employment relationship, for example if an industry minimum wage exists.

Across all industries, it can be said that whether the good old timesheet, Excel spreadsheet or another system is used to document working hours has not yet been specified – everything is still permitted. However, this can quickly become very time-consuming and lead to chaos without good organization. If employers fail to comply with this regulation, they may face heavy fines in the event of an inspection.

Good news: Thanks to the new regulation, spouses, registered partners, children and parents of the employer are not required to keep records in the company. Less bureaucracy at last.

The Minimum Wage Documentation Obligations Ordinance by the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS) has been in force since August 1, 2015 and has made things considerably easier for employers. At the beginning of the year, Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil (SPD) wanted to introduce the obligation to electronically record working hours for mini-jobs. This was intended to oblige employers to record the start (immediately upon commencement of work), end and duration of the daily working hours of their employees in marginal employment and to store them on the same day in an electronic and tamper-proof manner.

However, the draft law was revised again shortly before it was passed by the Federal Ministry and the Minimum Wage Increase Act was passed without this obligation. Pascal Kober MdB, labor market policy spokesperson for the FDP parliamentary group, had some doubts about the implementation of digital Time & Attendance, as companies would have to make additional investments. In the medium term, the Federal Ministry of Labor (BMAS) has agreed in the cabinet that more background research should be carried out into Time & Attendance software to ensure that the minimum wage can be enforced without burdening small and medium-sized companies with additional costs at the same time.

The BMAS does see advantages in electronic Time & Attendance:

• Time saving
• less paper (sustainable)
• Space saving
• can be viewed at any time
• can be viewed everywhere, not device-bound
• Clarity & structure
• Suitable for home office
• confidence-building

The Working Hours Act (ArbZG) stipulates that an employer must not only keep a record of working hours on weekdays, but also of working hours in excess of this, i.e. extensions. They must even meticulously fill in a register with the corresponding employee consents and keep it for at least 2 years. According to Section 17 MiLoG, employers are currently obliged to document the start, end and duration of a working day by the end of the seventh following calendar day at the latest. Quite a lot of paperwork, isn’t it?

The Minimum Wage Recording Ordinance (MiLoAufzV) is intended to simplify the documentation of actual working hours for mini-jobbers by only requiring them to state the duration of the hours worked in a day. The start and end of working hours are omitted in this area of application and simplify bureaucratic processes for the employer –provided that the employees divide their time independently and have no fixed requirements regarding the start and end of working hours, or are employed exclusively in a mobile activity or exclusively in private households.