Midijob: health insurance in the transition zone
On €1,000 gross you pay about €60 for health and care insurance in 2026 instead of €106; the employer makes up the rest.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we calculate
What the transition zone saves you
Your share in the transition zone
€90
| Without the transition zone | €127 |
| Saving a month | €36 |
| Employer pays | €138 |
2026, additional rate 2.9 %, one child; band up to €2,000.
A midijob is a job paying more than the minijob limit and no more than €2,000 a month. In this transition zone (Übergangsbereich, section 20(2) of Book IV of the Social Code) you are fully covered by health and long-term care insurance but pay a reduced share: your contribution is not worked out on your full gross pay but on a smaller amount that starts near zero just above the limit and rises to your full pay at €2,000. In 2026 the zone runs from €603.01 to €2,000; in 2027, with the higher minimum wage, it starts at €633.01. Your employer pays more than half instead. On €1,000 gross and the average additional rate of 2.9 % you pay €60 a month; without the rule it would be €106. Your fund’s additional rate still matters, just on the smaller base.
How the reduction works
In the transition zone the law works with two contributory amounts. The first sets the total that employee and employer pay to the fund together; it depends on factor F, which in 2026 is 28 percent divided by the total social insurance rate, 0.6619. From 2027 the numerator becomes the general rate plus the average additional rate plus the 15 percent pension flat rate for minijobs (contribution rate stabilisation act, article 2); with the rates foreseeable today that gives a provisional 0.7683, which becomes official once the Labour Ministry publishes it by the end of December 2026. The second sets only your share: your gross pay above the minijob limit, stretched over the band up to €2,000. Just above the limit this second amount is almost zero; at the top it equals your full wage. Whatever the employee pays less, the employer pays on top.
A published example: on €1,000 gross and an additional rate of 3.0 percent, the base for the total is €854.06 and the base for your share €568.36. Health insurance costs €150.32, of which you pay €50.02 and the employer €100.30. The engine behind this site recomputes exactly this case as a test.
Your share step by step
| Gross a month | Your health and care share | without the zone | Employer health and care |
|---|---|---|---|
| €700 | €15 | €74 | €93 |
| €1,000 | €60 | €106 | €120 |
| €1,300 | €105 | €137 | €147 |
| €1,600 | €151 | €169 | €175 |
| €1,900 | €196 | €200 | €202 |
The gap is widest at the bottom: on €653 gross you pay €8 instead of €69. The closer pay gets to €2,000, the smaller the advantage, and at the limit itself it is gone. So crossing the upper limit does not cause a sudden jump: the curve is smooth, and a pay rise always leaves you better off.
More hours: what you keep from a rise
In the transition zone your contribution rises faster than your pay, because the reduction shrinks with every euro. Going from €1,000 to €1,300 gross earns you €300 more and costs €45 more in health and care insurance. That is a bigger share than on a normal salary, but still far less than the rise itself. It is no reason to turn down hours; it just explains why the deductions on your payslip grow in percentage terms although your fund’s rate has not changed.
Midijob and family cover
A midijob makes you compulsorily insured in your own right. Family cover through a spouse or parent ends, because it requires that you have no compulsory cover of your own and income below €565 a month (section 10 SGB V). If you were insured free through your family and take a job paying more than €603, you become a member of your own fund and can choose it freely. The additional rate is worth a look here, since the choice binds you for at least twelve months. The family cover calculator checks whether you stay under the limit.
Midijob versus minijob
Up to €603 a month (€633 in 2027) a job is marginal. You pay no health contribution and the job does not insure you; you need family cover or your own membership. The employer pays a flat amount, 13 % of pay in 2026 and, from 2027 under the contribution stabilisation act, the general rate plus the average additional rate, 17.5 %. For a minijob at the limit that is €78 in 2026 and €111 in 2027. The minijob stays free for you and gets dearer for the employer.
What to look for on your payslip
The transition zone does not appear as a line of its own. You recognise it because the deductions for health, care, pension and unemployment insurance are well below the usual half rate. Childless members aged 23 and over pay the care surcharge of 0.6 points alone, on the larger base of the total contribution; the reduction for parents from the second child is worked out on the smaller base of your own share (GKV-Spitzenverband guidance). In Saxony employees carry 0.5 points more of care insurance: your share is half the rate plus 0.5 points on your reduced base and the employer pays the rest of the total, as example 9 of the joint circular on the transition zone shows, and that is how our calculator works too. Your fund’s rate is in the list of all additional rates, and the exact monthly amount in the contribution calculator, which detects the transition zone automatically.
There is no pension penalty either: since July 2019 midijobs count towards the state pension at full pay, even though the contribution is reduced (section 70(1a) SGB VI). Health and care insurance work the same way: a lower contribution, the same benefits.