German salary calculator: gross to net
Type a monthly or yearly gross salary, pick your tax class and federal state: you get the net pay with every tax and social-insurance line, on the official 2026 wage-tax program.
Net pay
€2,605.50 a month
€31,266.00 a year
| Monthly | Yearly | |
|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | €4,000.00 | €48,000.00 |
| Wage tax, solidarity surcharge and church tax | €524.50 | €6,294.00 |
| Social insurance | €870.00 | €10,440.00 |
| Net pay | €2,605.50 | €31,266.00 |
| Total cost to the employer | €4,846.00 | €58,152.00 |
Of every €100 of gross pay you keep €65.14: €13.11 goes to taxes and €21.75 to social insurance.
Overall, taxes and contributions take 34.9% of your gross pay.
The 2026 values used
- Contribution ceilings: €8,450 a month for pension and unemployment, €5,812.50 for health and care (source)
- Pension 18.6%, unemployment 2.6%, health 14.6%, care 3.6% (4.2% without children) (source)
- Average extra health contribution: 2.9% (source)
Statutory health insurance, no tax allowances on your card, North Rhine-Westphalia: change the state, the children and your insurer's rate in the form.
Where it goes
Where your €100 of gross pay go
Payslip
Your payslip, line by line
| Line | Base | You pay | Employer pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | €4,000.00 | ||
| Wage tax (Lohnsteuer) | €4,000.00 | €524.50 | |
| Pension insurance | €4,000.00 | €372.00 | €372.00 |
| Unemployment insurance | €4,000.00 | €52.00 | €52.00 |
| Health insurance | €4,000.00 | €350.00 | €350.00 |
| Long-term care insurance | €4,000.00 | €96.00 | €72.00 |
| Total withheld and paid | €1,394.50 | €846.00 | |
| Net pay | €2,605.50 | ||
| Total cost to the employer | €4,846.00 |
A month. The employer also pays accident insurance and the U1, U2 and insolvency levies, which depend on the company and are not included.
Quick answers
Net pay for common salaries, by tax class
| Gross a month | Class I | Class III | Class V |
|---|---|---|---|
| €1,500 | €1,211.44 | €1,220.69 | €1,067.86 |
| €2,000 | €1,476.84 | €1,565.00 | €1,267.00 |
| €2,500 | €1,768.92 | €1,956.25 | €1,490.59 |
| €3,000 | €2,054.42 | €2,312.17 | €1,721.84 |
| €3,500 | €2,333.25 | €2,628.59 | €1,959.42 |
| €4,000 | €2,605.50 | €2,928.17 | €2,185.09 |
| €4,500 | €2,871.09 | €3,221.09 | €2,408.67 |
| €5,000 | €3,130.09 | €3,510.67 | €2,632.17 |
| €6,000 | €3,641.58 | €4,095.25 | €3,091.66 |
| €7,000 | €4,179.58 | €4,730.41 | €3,567.94 |
| €8,000 | €4,679.96 | €5,348.58 | €4,035.70 |
Net a month, no church tax and no children, in North Rhine-Westphalia, with the average extra health contribution of 2.9%.
Tax classes
Which tax class are you in?
- Class I: single, divorced or widowed (from the second year), without the single-parent allowance.
- Class II: single parent living alone with a child, with the single-parent allowance.
- Class III: married, when the spouse is in class V or has no wages: the higher earner's class.
- Class IV: married, both earning about the same; the default for couples.
- Class V: married, the lower earner when the spouse is in class III.
- Class VI: a second or further job alongside the main one.
Method
How the net pay is worked out
Wage tax (Lohnsteuer) is computed with the Federal Ministry of Finance's own program for 2026, translated line by line and checked against its calculator to the cent. It takes your tax class, your children (for the solidarity surcharge and church tax) and a flat allowance for your social-insurance contributions.
The solidarity surcharge of 5.5% applies only above an exemption threshold, so most employees no longer pay it. Church tax is 9% of the wage tax, 8% in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.
Social insurance is shared between you and the employer: pension 18.6%, unemployment 2.6%, health 14.6% plus your insurer's extra contribution, and long-term care 3.6%, up to the yearly ceilings. Without children, from 23, you pay 0.6% more for care; from the second child under 25, 0.25% less per child. In Saxony you pay 0.5% more for care and the employer 0.5% less.
Learn
Three things worth knowing
-
The class changes withholding, not the tax
Classes III and V move tax from one spouse's payslip to the other's; the couple's final tax is set in the yearly return, whatever the classes.
-
Bismarck's insurance
Germany's health (1883), accident (1884) and pension (1889) insurance were the world's first national social insurance schemes; care insurance followed in 1995.
-
Comparing gross to gross
A German offer reads high next to many countries, but about 20% of it goes to social insurance before tax: compare net to net, or employer cost to employer cost.
FAQ
Questions about German net pay
- How much is 4,000 € gross in net pay?
- In tax class I with no children and no church tax, 4,000 € gross a month leaves about €2,605.50 net: €524.50 of wage tax and €870.00 of social insurance are withheld.
- How much does tax class III change?
- On 4,000 € gross a month, class III leaves €2,928.17 net instead of €2,605.50 in class I, because it doubles the basic allowance. The spouse in class V pays correspondingly more.
- Who still pays the solidarity surcharge?
- Only employees whose wage tax is above the exemption threshold: in class I without children, from about €7,700 of gross pay a month. Below it the surcharge is zero.
- Is there a cap on social-insurance contributions?
- Yes: in 2026 pension and unemployment contributions stop at €8,450 of gross pay a month, health and care contributions at €5,812.50. Above that, each extra euro pays only tax.
- Does this work for privately insured employees or minijobs?
- Minijobs and the midijob band are included. Private health insurance, the factor method for couples and tax allowances entered on your tax card are not, so the result is for an employee in the statutory insurance.
Keep going
Other salary calculators
Sources
Where the numbers come from
The wage tax is the Federal Ministry of Finance's own program for 2026; the contribution rates, ceilings and the minijob and midijob rules come from the pension insurance, the Federal Ministry of Health and the Social Code, checked on the date shown in the code and updated every year.
- Federal Ministry of Finance, wage-tax program 2026 (PAP, XML pseudo-code)
- Deutsche Rentenversicherung, contribution rates and ceilings
- Federal Ministry of Health, average extra health contribution 2026 (Bundesanzeiger)
- Social Code IV, § 8: the minijob limit
- Social Code IV, § 20: the midijob band
- Social Code VI, § 172: employer pension share for minijobs
- Social Code V, § 249b: employer health share for minijobs
- Income Tax Act, § 40a: flat tax on minijobs
- Stiftung Warentest, church tax rates by state (secondary source)
An estimate for planning, not tax advice: statutory health insurance, no allowances on the tax card, regular monthly pay without one-off bonuses.