Gleiches Entgelt
19 Aug 2025
Mareike
Equal Pay: Equal Pay for Temporary Workers
Many large companies rely on the employment of temporary workers. However, until 2008, there was no fixed legislation for the equal treatment of temporary workers and permanent employees. Temporary work was used to save personnel costs, which has not been possible since 2017 due to the Equal Pay law. In this article, you will learn more about what Equal Pay is, what the differences are to Equal Treatment, and how Equal Pay is calculated.
What is Equal Pay?
As mentioned in the introduction, Equal Pay refers to the same remuneration for temporary workers compared to permanent employees. A law on Equal Pay has been in place in Germany since 2017. However, there are several requirements for the claim to Equal Pay. The employer is only obliged to pay the same salary after 9 months (or 15 months in the case of collective agreements) of uninterrupted employment. Equal Pay also includes additional payments such as Christmas bonuses, bonuses, holiday pay, and the like.
For multiple individual assignments of the employee within the company, the assignment periods are summed. However, there must not be an interruption of more than three months between the assignments, otherwise, the previous assignments for the calculation will be invalidated.
If the employer does not adhere to these regulations, various sanctions may apply:
Fines of up to 500,000 euros
Revocation of the worker transfer permit
Payment of the wage difference to the employee
Possible penalties in the area of tax law
Difference to Equal Treatment
In addition to Equal Pay, there has been the Equal Treatment law since 2008. This does not concern the remuneration of temporary workers, but rather equal working conditions. It stipulates that the same break times, regulations regarding shift and night work, vacation entitlements, and working environment apply to temporary workers. This ensures that temporary workers do not have to work under more difficult conditions and are not potentially overloaded.
Equal Pay in Collective Agreements
Special regulations apply to temporary workers with collective agreements. Once you are employed in an industry with additional benefits, the Equal Pay law applies only after 15 months of employment duration. The employer also has the right to cap the salary at 90% of the contractual Equal Pay.
However, if the temporary worker is employed in an industry without additional benefits, Equal Pay applies after 9 months, even with a collective agreement.
How is Equal Pay calculated?
The right to Equal Pay arises from a comparison of the wages of the lending and borrowing company. If the borrowing salary is higher than the salary from the lending company for the same weekly working hours, then the employee has a right to Equal Pay.
Example:
if the
salary at the lending company is 3,500 euros for 38 hours of weekly working time
salary at the borrowing company is 3,900 euros for 40 hours of weekly working time
-> then the calculation is (3,900 : 40) x 38 = 3,705
Since the salary at the borrowing company is higher for the same weekly working hours than at the lending company, the temporary worker has a right to Equal Pay.
Conclusion
Equal Pay is alongside Equal Treatment an important step towards the equal treatment of agency workers and to avoid unfair pay. It significantly contributes to ensuring that the same work is valued equally and increases the satisfaction of employees in agency work companies. If you are employed as an agency worker, it is highly recommended that you check your terms and conditions in more detail and, if necessary, remind your supervisor of your right to Equal Pay.