Altersteilzeit

The Partial Retirement Act (Altersteilzeitgesetz, AtG) offers you as an employee the opportunity to reduce your working hours by half after reaching the age of 55.

Your employer can conclude an agreement on partial retirement with you on a voluntary basis. However, the employer may also be obliged to conclude an agreement on part-time work for older employees with you on the basis of a collective agreement, a company agreement or a corresponding church law regulation.

With the agreement on part-time work for older employees

• the previous weekly working time is reduced to half (either in a continuous model with half the working time throughout or as a block model with a full working phase and a leisure phase),
• employment subject to compulsory insurance continues, and
• the employer is obliged to make top-up payments to the partial retirement pay and pension insurance contributions for you.

The employer tops up the remuneration subject to social insurance contributions to be paid to you on a regular basis for partial retirement work (excluding one-off payments) by at least 20 percent and pays additional contributions to the statutory pension insurance for you. This ensures that you are covered by pension insurance at at least 90 percent of your previous pay. The top-up amounts to be paid by the employer on top of the part-time retirement pay and pension insurance contributions are tax-free and not subject to social insurance contributions.

The requirements for partial retirement are:

• an agreement on part-time work between you and your employer, which must extend at least until the date from which you can claim an old-age pension,
• you must have reached the age of 55,
• the reduction of your previous weekly working hours by half, and

top-up payments to partial retirement pay and pension insurance contributions by the employer.

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The German Partial Retirement Act (Altersteilzeitgesetz, AtG) offers you as an employee the opportunity to reduce your working hours by half after reaching the age of 55.

Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS)

Address:

Rochusstrasse 1

53123 Bonn

How to contact:

E-mail: info@bmas.bund.de

Telephone no.: +49 228 99 527-0

Fax no.: +49 228 99 527-2965

Online contact form: https://www.bmas.de/DE/Service/Kontakt/inhalt.html

Citizens' hotline of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs on part-time/partial retirement/minijobs

Service hours:

Mon - Thurs 08:00 - 20:00 hrs.

Contact options:

Telephone no.: +49 30 221 911 005 (Citizens' hotline)

E-mail: info@bmas.bund.de

Online contact form:

https://www.bmas.de/DE/Service/Kontakt/inhalt.html