Industries with minimum wage pursuant to the Posted Workers Act (AEntG), wage floors pursuant to the Act on the Provision of Temporary Workers (AÜG)

Precedence of AEntG and AÜG

Art. 1 (3) of the Minimum Wage Act (Mindestlohngesetz - MiLoG) stipulates that the provisions of the Posted Workers Act (Arbeitnehmer-Entsendegesetz - AEntG), the Act on the Provision of Temporary Workers (Arbeitnehmerüberlassungsgesetz - AÜG) and the statutory ordinances adopted in pursuance thereof shall prevail over those of the MiLoG, subject to the condition that the sector-specific minimum wages so agreed shall not fall short of the national minimum wage as specified in Art. 1 MiLoG. Where the provisions of AEntG and AÜG and of the statutory ordinances adopted in pursuance thereof take precedence, however, this primacy of law is not restricted solely to the amount of pay, but shall also cover all secondary obligations associated with it.

Whether or not a collective agreement applies to an employment relationship is generally assessed on the basis of its scope of application or the scope of the statutory regulation extending to the collective agreement. However, in the case of worker postings to Germany, the extension of the scope of collective minimum wage rates and holiday arrangements, as stipulated by the AEntG, does not apply to initial assembly or installation work that constitutes a part of a supply contract and is indispensable for the commissioning of the delivered goods and is carried out by skilled workers or semi-skilled workers of the supplier, for a posting of a duration that does not exceed 8 days and where the initial assembly or installation work does not constitute construction work within the meaning of section 101(2) SGB III. Insofar as the employment relationship is excluded from the extension of validity, there are also no reporting and documentation obligations pursuant to the AEntG.

The Posted Workers Act (Arbeitnehmer-Entsendegesetz - AEntG) requires the application of collective wage agreements on minimum wages in several sectors.

There is also a legal ordinance according to Art. 11 of the AEntG that prescribes a minimum wage for the care provision sector.
As concerns the temporary employment sector, an ordinance pursuant to Article 3a, Act on the Provision of Temporary Workers (Arbeitnehmerüberlassungsgesetz - AÜG), has introduced a minimum required level of hourly remuneration rates for periods of assignment and periods without assignments.

There are some special rules for certain activities that are only temporarily carried out by employees in Germany, when the employer is based abroad.

Special rules for certain activities

Certain rules of the Posted Workers Act do not apply to road traffic.

Special rules for road traffic

More information about temporary agency work and the supply of temporary workers