Midijob 2027 changes: new lower limit and factor F formula

What changes in the transition zone in 2027

Two things change on January 1, 2027. The lower limit of the midi-job zone rises from €603.01 to €633.01, because it is tied to the mini-job limit. And factor F, which is used to calculate reduced contributable earnings in the zone, gets a new formula. The upper limit stays at €2,000.

The new lower limit is already fixed. It follows from the notice on the mini-job earnings limit (Geringfügigkeitsgrenze) dated November 7, 2025. Factor F for 2027 is published by the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs in the Federal Gazette (Bundesanzeiger) by December 31, 2026 (Section 20(2a) of Social Code Book IV, SGB IV). Until then there is no official value. Limits and factors since 2015 are on the page transition zone 2026 and 2027.

Transition zone 2026 and 2027 compared

Source: Section 20 SGB IV: financing and the transition zone

The lower limit follows the mini-job limit

The transition zone covers pay from employment above the mini-job level that regularly does not exceed €2,000 a month (Section 20(2) SGB IV). It therefore starts one cent above the mini-job limit. Since October 2022, the mini-job limit has followed the statutory minimum wage (Section 8(1a) SGB IV), which rises to €14.60 an hour on January 1, 2027. That produces the limit of €633 and the new lower limit of the zone.

So check employees whose 2026 pay sits just above the old limit. Someone earning between €603.01 and €633 will no longer exceed the mini-job limit in 2027. The midi-job formulas then stop applying, and the job has to be assessed again under Section 8 SGB IV. The use case on checking the mini-job limit shows how software can flag such cases in advance.

With more than one job, total pay counts (Section 20(2) SGB IV). Whether someone with two midi-jobs goes above €2,000 depends on the sum. The upper limit itself has not changed since it was raised on January 1, 2023; before that it was €1,600. Until June 2019 the zone was called the sliding zone (Gleitzone).

The new formula for factor F

Until the end of 2026, F is 28 percent divided by the year's total social security contribution rate (Gesamtsozialversicherungsbeitragssatz). The 28 percent has been in the law since October 2022; before that it was 30 percent. From January 1, 2027, the numerator is the sum of the general health insurance contribution rate, the average additional contribution rate (durchschnittlicher Zusatzbeitragssatz) and the percentage in Section 168(1) No. 1b of Social Code Book VI, currently 15 percent. This is the new wording of Section 20(2a) sentence 2 SGB IV, inserted by Article 2 No. 1 of the health insurance contribution stabilization act (GKV-Beitragssatzstabilisierungsgesetz) of July 24, 2026, and in force from 2027 under its Article 8(2).

The denominator is still the total social security contribution rate. It is the sum of the pension, long-term care and unemployment insurance rates in force on January 1, plus the general health insurance rate increased by the average additional contribution rate (Section 20(2a) SGB IV). For 2026 those are 18.6, 3.6 and 2.6 percent, plus 14.6 and 2.9 percent. With 28 percent in the numerator, that gave the published factor of 0.6619. The individual rates are listed on the page German social security contribution rates.

What is missing for 2027 is mainly the average additional contribution rate, and it appears on both sides of the formula. The Federal Ministry of Health publishes it by November 1, 2026 (Section 242a(2) SGB V), and the Federal Ministry of Labor publishes factor F by December 31, 2026. This article therefore gives no value for F in 2027 and does not estimate one.

Timeline to the turn of the year

How the two formulas work

In the transition zone, payroll works with two contributable earnings figures. Total contributable earnings are F × G + (OG ÷ (OG − G) − G ÷ (OG − G) × F) × (AE − G), and the earnings used for the employee's share are OG ÷ (OG − G) × (AE − G). AE is the gross pay (Arbeitsentgelt), G the mini-job limit and OG the upper limit of the zone.

The total contribution is calculated from the first figure, the employee's share from the second, and the employer pays the difference. If you plug the upper limit in for AE, both formulas return exactly OG. At the top of the zone, full contributions on full pay apply again and F no longer matters. The closer pay is to the lower limit, the stronger the effect of the factor.

What the new formula means for employers

The new numerator contains exactly the rates an employer pays as flat contributions to health and pension insurance for a commercial mini-job from 2027: the general rate plus the average additional rate under the new Section 249b sentence 1 SGB V, and 15 percent for pension insurance. The old formula followed the same logic, since 28 percent equals the 13 plus 15 percent flat rates of 2026.

In numbers, this means: just above the mini-job limit, total contributable earnings are roughly F times G, while the earnings used for the employee's share are close to zero. The employer pays almost the entire contribution there, roughly the numerator of F applied to G, which matches the mini-job flat rates for health and pension insurance. The flat rates themselves are on the page flat-rate levies for mini-jobs.

The general rate of 14.6 percent and the 15 percent for pension insurance alone already add up to more than 28 percent. F in 2027 is therefore higher than the old formula would have produced with the same denominator, and employers pay more at the lower end of the zone. Employees are not affected by the factor: their share is based on separate contributable earnings that do not include F (Section 20(2a) SGB IV), and the employer pays the rest, for pension insurance under Section 168(1) No. 1d SGB VI.

For 2027 personnel cost planning, one number is therefore missing until December. Treat midi-job costs as provisional until the notice is out and update them once the factor is known.

Query limits, formula and citation for 2027

$ curl "https://api.quellenkontor.dev/v1/hr/uebergangsbereich?datum=2027-01-15" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $QK_KEY"

# Excerpt of the response
{
  "bezeichnung": "Übergangsbereich",
  "faktor_f_definition": "(allgemeiner Beitragssatz + durchschnittlicher Zusatzbeitragssatz + 15 Prozent) ÷ Gesamtsozialversicherungsbeitragssatz",
  "formel": {
    "beitragspflichtige_einnahme_gesamt": "F × G + (OG ÷ (OG − G) − G ÷ (OG − G) × F) × (AE − G)",
    "beitragspflichtige_einnahme_arbeitnehmer": "OG ÷ (OG − G) × (AE − G)"
  },
  "zitat": "Übergangsbereich (Midijob) am 15.01.2027: 633,01 bis 2.000 Euro im Monat, Faktor F noch nicht bekannt gegeben. Rechtsgrundlage: § 20 Abs. 2 SGB IV; Untergrenze: Geringfügigkeitsgrenze 633 Euro plus 1 Cent. Quelle: § 20 SGB IV (Aufbringung der Mittel, Übergangsbereich), https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/sgb_4/__20.html. Daten: Quellenkontor (quellenkontor.dev)."
}

How the API handles the missing factor

As long as a value has not been published, the API does not guess. For reference dates in 2027 it returns the limits, the formula in the field faktor_f_definition and a note that F is still missing. The field faktor_f stays null until publication, and the ready-to-cite sentence says explicitly that the factor has not been announced yet.

Once the notice is out, the weekly review enters the value with its valid-from date. How Quellenkontor marks future, provisional and announced values is explained under reference dates and validity. Payroll software can catch the missing factor and hold January midi-job payroll until it arrives. If you need 2026 and 2027 side by side, query two reference dates or fetch every stage from the /verlauf endpoint.

Release midi-job payroll only with a known factor

import { Quellenkontor } from "@quellenkontor/sdk";

const qk = new Quellenkontor(process.env.QK_KEY);
const ub = await qk.hr.uebergangsbereich({ datum: "2027-01-15" });

// The limits are fixed, the factor arrives with the ministry's notice
if (ub.faktor_f === null) {
  throw new Error("Factor F for 2027 not published yet, hold midi-job payroll");
}

What payroll teams and software should prepare for January 2027

• Store the lower limit of €633.01 and G = €633 as entries valid from January 1, 2027.
• Keep the formula for F per calendar year. What counts is the year in which the claim to the pay arose (Section 20(2a) SGB IV).
• Reassess employees earning between €603.01 and €633 before year-end.
• Import the average additional contribution rate for 2027 once it is published, since it feeds into factor F and into the mini-job flat rate.
• Release January midi-job payroll only after factor F for 2027 has been published.
• Keep apprentices out of the midi-job calculation.
• Round according to Sections 121 and 123 SGB VI, as Section 20(2a) SGB IV requires.

What stays the same in 2027

• The upper limit of €2,000 a month (Section 20(2) SGB IV).
• The two formulas for total contributable earnings and for the employee's share. Only factor F inside them is calculated differently.
• The denominator of the factor and the deadline for publishing it by December 31 of the previous year.
• The pension insurance flat rate of 15 percent for commercial mini-jobs, which now sits in the numerator.
• The exception for apprentices.

Apprentices: no midi-job formula

The midi-job calculation does not apply to apprentices. Both formulas exclude people employed for their vocational training (Section 20(2a) SGB IV). Their contributions are therefore based on full pay, even if it falls between the mini-job limit and the upper limit.