As someone who is living in Germany and studying at a university there, I can confidently say that part-time jobs in Germany are actually pretty good. The money from a part-time job in Germany can definitely help you cover almost all living expenses, gain valuable work experience, and even meet new people. It’s a huge win. And when I have some time available outside of university, I always try to work some kind of job to build myself up financially.

I’m going to tell you everything about part-time jobs in Germany. And at the end of this video, I’ll give you some tips. But before you go ahead and apply for all these jobs out there, first, it’s good to know that in Germany, there are certain regulations and limitations when it comes to part-time jobs for students. Germans have rules for everything. They absolutely love rules. Their hobby is to complain and sue people. So I can highly recommend you follow the law here.

So in Germany, university students are allowed to work up to 120 full days or 240 half days in a year. During your time at university, you can work a maximum of 20 hours per week during the semester. So that’s part-time and 40 hours or full-time in the semester breaks. It’s up to you to decide how to spread out these hours during the week. It always depends on your lectures and overall lifestyle. A lot of people also like having 8 or 10-hour weeks as a more relaxed approach.

In the rare case that you need to work more than the allowed 20 hours, you gotta get some form of permission from your local employment agency and the registration office. But to be honest, for most people, I cannot recommend working more than 20 hours in your job because it will impact your studies and all other areas of life. We don’t want to burnout.

So let’s talk about the wages here in Germany and the types of jobs you can get. At the moment, the minimum wage here in Germany is 12 euros. They actually increased it in 2022 due to inflation from 10.49 to 12 euros, which is a real blessing. Yeah, like everything seems to be getting more expensive nowadays. Things like groceries got substantially more expensive during this year. And I know that many students don’t have rich parents. Some need to fund their entire student life themselves. Much respect for all the students out there who self-fund themselves while in university. Or some of you might decide to live in an expensive city like Munich, Hamburg, or Frankfurt.

And if you live there, you need to supplement with a job on the side to stay on track. Especially if you live in one of the bigger cities in Germany, everything is going to be way more expensive. The differences in rent prices, for example, are huge. You might even pay double the amount compared to a smaller city in Germany. Munich, the city where I live, is in a really critical situation with the housing market. The majority of people who want to study here is struggling to find an apartment. But even if you can afford ridiculously high prices, actually getting an apartment is the hardest part.

So to be prepared and build yourself financially, there are two types of jobs you can work as a student: a mini-job and a part-time job. Both are valid options and really interesting, depending on your circumstances. The majority of students I know work one of these two. So mini-jobs are all jobs where you can earn up to 520 euros per month. And they usually have fewer hours. With a part-time job, on the other hand, you can work 20 hours and as a result, the amount of money you earn will also be higher.

As a quick reminder, when it comes to taxes, there are some important things you should keep in mind to be able to keep more money at the end of the month. The good thing is you won’t pay any taxes if your income stays under 520 euros per month. And this means that you get the entire 520 euros into your own pocket without the government brutally taking its cut. It’s a beautiful thing, and you should definitely take advantage of that. Not many things in life are tax-free. If you go above 520, there is still no income tax yet, but you’re not going to pay social contributions, insurance, and all that stuff. But we students can get this money back by the end of the year by doing our taxes.

I have a resource for that in the video description. And as a very important thing, every year you are allowed to earn up to 10,000 euros without needing to pay income tax. So I can highly recommend you max out these 10,000 euros every year as a student. I don’t like taxes. I assume you don’t like them either. So let’s avoid them whenever possible. Legally, of course. I put a student wage calculator in the video description in case you want to play around with it. And also a bunch of other extremely helpful finance-related services in Germany.

So 12 euros is the minimum wage in Germany. But of course, if possible, we want a better deal. If you want to maximize your earnings and succeed in your part-time job as a student, here are some tips from me. So as a basic thing, I can suggest you build up your German language skills to access a lot more job opportunities. And the pool of jobs where you don’t need any German is quite small, which makes sense. We are in Germany. On the other hand, the jobs where German is required might also be higher paying. Also, networking with other students and local residents to find job leads is really important.

The best job offers I received were actually referrals from people in my close network. A fellow student might have a dad whose friend has a neighbor who is looking for special talent. I don’t know, something like this. You just need to make sure you present yourself well and keep your eyes open. And if possible, be proactive and apply for positions early, especially during the peak hiring seasons. I would say the peak hiring seasons are the times around January, February, and September, October.

One more thing is to make sure that you balance the work hours with your study schedule to make sure that you achieve both academic and financial success. I don’t want you to burn out in both. I currently work two jobs as a university student. One is an on-campus job as a social media content creator. And I also do videography and video editing freelancing for small businesses and private clients.

Germany has a strong social system. The country makes sure that even people who are new in the country can live a stable life and also get a good education at university. But keep in mind, the 12 euros per hour is just a minimum wage. It is the baseline. The upside potential is huge, and there are jobs out there even for students that pay 17, 20 euros, and even 25 euros per hour. If you’re lucky and really skilled. Of course, these are the more specialized fields like web design, programming, digital marketing, AI, et cetera.

The job market in Germany is quite diverse, and there are opportunities in a lot of industries, including retail, food service, tutoring, research assistantships, and more. Jobs are literally everywhere. You can even find on-campus jobs within your university, such as working in the library or as a student assistant in different departments.

Okay, so let me do some money calculations here. I want you to pay attention. Okay, so imagine this for a second. You got a basic job in Germany doing some office work or working in retail. It’s minimum wage, 12 euros per hour. Now you’re legally allowed to work 20 hours per week, 12 times 20. So that’s 240 euros. This is how much you can make in a week. Let’s multiply that by four because one month has about four weeks. So that will be a little under 1000 euros, 960 euros at the end of the month. But unfortunately, we are not going to keep the entire 960 euros at the end of the month. So here we have the student wage calculator again, and I’m gonna walk you through it.

As a monthly wage, we put in 960 euros. If you are a student who is not married, your tax class is usually going to be. We can also specify the federal state. In this case, we just pick Bavaria. Then the year you were born, so let’s do 2002 here. And no, we don’t have children. And in case you’re wondering, this Monatsfreibetrag thing here, these are tax-deductible things, for example, travel costs as a commuter. But let’s leave this part empty for now. And no, we don’t pay church tax. So on the side, we can now see the total amount you’re going to get straight into your pocket. Now you’re going to pay some social contributions, and after subtracting them, you’re going to make about 880 euros per month.

This is actually not bad. With this amount, you can survive. You won’t have a luxurious life though, but the quality of living is really good in Germany.