Wages and agency fees for household staff in Germany

As of 6 November 2026

This guide summarises what a private household in Germany must pay household staff at least, what the official earnings statistics say about pay in comparable occupations, and what placement agencies may charge and actually charge. Minimum wage, statistics and rules come from laws and official pages, the fees from the websites of the agencies in the register; every figure carries its source, all retrieved on 25 October 2026. The text is an orientation, not legal or tax advice and not a pay recommendation. The rules on licences, registration, social insurance and work permits are in the guide Hiring household staff in Germany.

At a glance

• The statutory minimum wage is EUR 13.90 gross per hour and rises to EUR 14.60 on 1 January 2027; it applies to Minijobs too, whose earnings limit is EUR 603 a month in 2026. There is no collective agreement for private households; the care-sector minimum wage does not apply there.
• Board and lodging count as pay: in 2026 at EUR 345 for meals and EUR 285 for accommodation per month, 15 percent less when the employee is taken into the employer's household.
• The official statistics do not cover private households as employers. For orientation: the median pay of all full-time employees was EUR 4,217 a month at the end of 2025, in cleaning occupations EUR 2,675, for cooks EUR 3,018, in childcare EUR 4,330; in Hesse, skilled domestic science staff earned a median of EUR 17.85 per hour in April 2025.
• What an agency charges the household is a matter of agreement and owed only on success; 19 percent VAT comes on top. The agencies in the register that publish fees state 15 to 30 percent of the gross annual salary or two to three months' salary, some with a processing fee in advance.
• On top of gross pay the household owes at most 14.62 percent in levies for a Minijob, and for employment subject to social insurance an employer share of about 21 percent plus levies and accident insurance.

Minimum wage, Minijob and benefits in kind

The statutory minimum wage has been EUR 13.90 gross per hour since 1 January 2026 and rises to EUR 14.60 on 1 January 2027; it applies to every job in a private household, Minijobs included. Up to EUR 603 of earnings a month, domestic help is a Minijob in 2026, registered with the Minijob-Zentrale by Haushaltsscheck. The care-sector minimum wage, which rose on 1 July 2026 to EUR 16.52 for care assistants and EUR 21.03 for qualified nurses, applies to care providers; a household that employs a carer directly owes the general minimum wage. We found no generally binding collective agreement for household staff in private homes in official sources.

When staff live in, board and lodging count as benefits in kind and thus as pay. The social insurance remuneration ordinance sets meals at EUR 345 and accommodation at EUR 285 a month for 2026; when the employee is taken into the employer's household, the value of the accommodation is reduced by 15 percent, and where the table value is inequitable the local rent may be used instead. For night work between 11 pm and 6 am an employer without a collective agreement owes an appropriate number of paid days off or an appropriate supplement; the law names no percentage, and the Working Hours Act does not apply to staff who live in the household and raise, nurse or care for people there. The law provides no thirteenth month and no holiday bonus.

What official statistics say about pay

Two official statistics measure pay by occupation, both without private households as employers: the earnings statistics of the Federal Employment Agency show the median pay of full-time employees subject to social insurance on 31 December, the earnings survey of the Federal Statistical Office and the Land offices the gross hourly earnings in April, collected in economic sections A to S, which do not include private households with domestic staff (section T). All figures below therefore describe employees of companies and institutions, such as hotels, cleaning firms, nurseries and care providers; they are a benchmark, not a statistic about private households.

Median pay published by the Federal Employment Agency as of 31 December 2025, gross per month, full-time, nationwide:

The Agency publishes no medians for occupations with fewer than 500 employees; there is no occupation code of its own for butlers or house managers. Individual occupations such as domestic science worker, childcare worker, gardener, caretaker or security specialist are shown in the Agency's Entgeltatlas, an interactive application by Land, age and skill level.

Gross hourly earnings from the earnings survey for Hesse in April 2025, median of full-time employees without special payments, as an example for the Frankfurt region:

Nationwide, full-time employees earned an average of EUR 28.19 per hour and EUR 4,784 a month in April 2025; the median gross annual earnings including special payments were EUR 54,066 in 2025. Converted to a 40-hour week, the Hesse median for domestic science equals EUR 3,094 a month, the median for childcare and education EUR 4,370; a private household looking for a housekeeper or nanny with responsibility for a large house will have to look at the upper values, and there is no official figure for that.

What agencies may charge

The fee an agency charges the household is governed by the broker law of the Civil Code: the fee is owed only if the employment contract comes about through the agency's introduction or mediation, and expenses are reimbursed only if agreed. There is no statutory cap; amount, due date, refund on early termination, probation and replacement stand in the placement contract and the agency's terms of business. VAT of 19 percent applies to the fee. The narrow limits of section 296 of the Social Code III, written form, success only, at most EUR 2,000, apply only to fees from job seekers, not to the household.

An agency that leases staff rather than placing them needs a licence for temporary agency work and must grant the leased staff the essential working conditions of comparable employees of the household; a collective agreement may deviate from this only for the first nine months, and a lease to the same household may not exceed 18 consecutive months. If the household takes on a leased worker permanently, the agency may agree an appropriate fee for that; a ban on taking the worker on would be void.

Fees published in the register

Of the 30 entries for household staffing agencies in Munich, Hamburg and Frankfurt, seven state fees on their website; the rest quote on request. The published figures, as of 25 October 2026 (properhome added on 6 November 2026), with the source on the respective entry page:

• N4YK (Frankfurt): processing fee of EUR 535.50 on commissioning, credited on successful placement; placement fee of 18 percent of the gross annual salary of the placed person.
• Heartfelt Nanny (Frankfurt): set-up fee from EUR 649 depending on national or international search, due on commissioning; success fee based on the agreed salary, stated before the contract is signed, no percentage published.
• properhome (Munich): placement fee of 15 percent of the gross annual salary of the person hired, minimum EUR 1,800; free of charge until the employment contract is concluded.
• Starfamily (Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt): success-based fee of two to three gross monthly salaries of the nanny depending on the scope of the position, due only once a nanny has been found.
• Drechsler Hauswirtschaft (Hamburg): 25 to 30 percent of the first gross annual salary, 20 percent for existing clients; 25 percent due on assignment, 75 percent after the employment contract is signed.

A worked example: for a full-time housekeeper at the Hesse median for domestic science, EUR 17.85 per hour, the gross annual salary is EUR 37,128; 15 percent of that is a fee of EUR 5,569, 18 percent EUR 6,683, two to three months' salary EUR 6,188 to 9,282, 25 to 30 percent EUR 9,282 to 11,138, each plus VAT. All agencies with published fees are on the page Agencies with published fees. Of the nine lifestyle concierges in the three cities (as of 6 November 2026), only Memberslounge in Hamburg states prices: EUR 800 a year plus a one-off admission fee of EUR 400, net of VAT, with a twelve-month term.

What the household pays on top

For a Minijob the household pays levies of at most 14.62 percent of the wage in 2026: flat contributions of 5 percent each to health and pension insurance, 1.6 percent accident insurance, levies of 0.8 and 0.22 percent and a flat tax of 2 percent; the Minijob-Zentrale collects them twice a year. 20 percent of the cost reduces income tax, up to EUR 510 a year.

For employment subject to social insurance the household bears half of the contributions: 9.3 percent pension insurance, 1.3 percent unemployment insurance, 7.3 percent health insurance plus half of the health fund's supplementary rate, on average 2.9 percent for 2026, and 1.8 percent long-term care insurance, together about 21.15 percent at the average supplementary rate. Added to this are the levies U1 and U2 of the health fund and the contribution to statutory accident insurance of the competent accident fund. In 2026 contributions accrue up to a ceiling of EUR 5,812.50 a month for health and care insurance and EUR 8,450 for pension and unemployment insurance; above that the salary is contribution-free, which matters for highly paid house managers. On the monthly salary of EUR 3,094 from the example above, that is an employer share of about EUR 654 a month. 20 percent of the cost reduces income tax, here up to EUR 4,000 a year.

The Minijob-Zentrale provides a Haushaltsscheck calculator that shows the levies of a Minijob in the household and the tax reduction. Details on registration, social insurance and tax relief are in the guide Hiring household staff in Germany.

Sources

All sources retrieved on 25 October 2026.

1. Minijob-Zentrale, Minijob mit Verdienstgrenze, minijob-zentrale.de; Abgaben und Fristen für Haushalte, minijob-zentrale.de; Haushaltsscheck-Rechner, minijob-zentrale.de
2. Federal Government, Mehr Geld für Pflegekräfte, 1 July 2026, bundesregierung.de
3. Sozialversicherungsentgeltverordnung (SvEV), section 2, gesetze-im-internet.de; Arbeitszeitgesetz (ArbZG), sections 2, 6 and 18, juris.de
4. Federal Employment Agency, Blickpunkt Arbeitsmarkt: Analyse zur Entgeltstatistik 2025, October 2026, statistik.arbeitsagentur.de; Entgelte nach Berufen im Vergleich, Kurzinfo, July 2025, statistik.arbeitsagentur.de; Hilfe zum Entgeltatlas, arbeitsagentur.de
5. Hessian Statistical Office, Verdienste nach Berufen in Hessen 2025, March 2026, statistik.hessen.de
6. Federal Statistical Office, Verdienste nach Branchen und Berufen, destatis.de; Durchschnittliche Bruttoverdienste und Arbeitszeiten, Ergebnisse für April 2025, destatis.de
7. Civil Code (BGB), section 652, gesetze-im-internet.de; VAT Act (UStG), section 12, gesetze-im-internet.de; Social Code III, section 296, gesetze-im-internet.de
8. Temporary Agency Work Act (AÜG), sections 1, 8 and 9, gesetze-im-internet.de
9. Techniker Krankenkasse, Aktuelle Beitragssätze in der Sozialversicherung, as of 6 January 2026, tk.de; Sozialversicherungs-Rechengrößen 2026, tk.de
10. Income Tax Act (EStG), section 35a, gesetze-im-internet.de
11. Luxury.me, entries of the agencies and concierges named, with source and retrieval date on each entry page; overview Agencies with published fees