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As a student from the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, you have the same rights and restrictions as German students when it comes to working part-time during your studies. As a student from any other country, you are subject to some special restrictions.

• You are only permitted to work 140 full days or 280 half days per year.
• You are not permitted to be self-employed or freelance.
• If you want to work more than the permitted hours, you must request permission from the Employment Agency (Agentur für Arbeit) and the Immigration Office (Ausländerbehörde/Landesamt für Einwanderung).
• If you attend a language course or a preparatory course as an international student, you may only work (during semester breaks) with the permission of the Federal Employment Agency (Agentur für Arbeit) and the Immigration Office (Ausländerbehörde/Landesamt für Einwanderung).

The statutory minimum wage in Germany has been €12 gross per hour since 1 October 2022. At Zenjob, the average salary of many of our jobs is even higher.

Legally, there is no general income limit for students. However, there are some restrictions that you may have to observe.

• If you are entitled to BAföG, you may earn a maximum of €520.92 per month without deductions.
• If you are covered by family insurance, you may earn a maximum of €470 per month. In the case of a minijob, the amount increases to a maximum of €520 per month.
• In Germany, the basic tax-free allowance for single persons is €10,347 per year. If you want to avoid paying taxes, your total annual income must not exceed this.

Students in Germany are only permitted to work full-time during the semester break (vorlesungsfreie Zeit).

While classes are in session (Vorlesungszeit), they are only allowed to work a maximum of 20 hours per week. This has to do with the so-called working student privilege (Werkstudentenprivileg), which exempts students from paying contributions to statutory health, nursing care insurance and unemployment insurance – even if they earn more than €520 per month in a minijob.

The only requirement for the working student privilege is that you devote most of your time and energy to your studies. This applies when you work less than 20 hours per week in your student job while classes are in session. Please note that special restrictions apply to students who do not come from an EU member state, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, or Switzerland. They are only permitted to work 120 full days or 240 half days per year.

If you work more than 20 hours per week as a student while classes are in session (Vorlesungszeit), you lose your working student privilege (Werkstudentenprivileg). You are no longer considered a proper student, but an employee who studies part-time. As a result, you lose your entitlement to compulsory student insurance and child benefit (if such entitlement exists). You will also have to pay contributions to statutory health, nursing care insurance and unemployment insurance.

Please note that this does not apply during semester breaks. During the semester break, you may work more than 20 hours per week as a student without losing your working student privilege.

It depends on your (annual) income. If your annual income as a single person is below €10,347 (as of 2022), you do not have to pay tax. This also applies to students. This amount is the so-called basic tax-free allowance (Grundfreibetrag) which is intended to ensure that all Germans can secure a minimum subsistence level (Existenzminimum).

If your student job qualifies as temporary employment (as is the case with Zenjob), you pay income tax on your monthly earnings. However, if your annual income remains below the basic tax-free allowance, you can reclaim the income tax you paid by filing an annual income tax return at the beginning of the following year.