Posting workers to Germany: what companies must observe (A1, minimum wage)

What counts legally as posting to Germany?

A posting exists where an employer based abroad temporarily sends its employees to Germany to perform work or a service there — a Polish construction company bringing a team over for a shell build, for instance, or a Romanian installation firm fitting plant at a German customer's site. The decisive point: the employment relationship with the posting company continues, and the assignment in Germany is limited in time.

For this case, Germany has a dense set of rules: the Arbeitnehmer-Entsendegesetz (AEntG — the Posted Workers Act) and the Mindestlohngesetz (MiLoG — the Minimum Wage Act) lay down which German working conditions also apply to posted staff, regardless of which law the employment contract otherwise chooses. On top of that come notification and documentation duties towards German customs, and the question of social insurance.

Posting is to be distinguished from two other arrangements: if the worker takes a German employment contract himself, there is no posting — the normal rules for employees in Germany then apply (see our guide working in Germany: the first steps). And anyone deploying workers not on their own contracts but making them available to a German company is in the territory of temporary agency work, which requires its own licence and is not covered here. For classic posting — your own staff performing your own contract in Germany — this guide walks through the key stages. Anyone who knows the points and works through them in order is on safe ground.

What is the A1 certificate and where do you apply for it?

The A1-Bescheinigung (A1 certificate) is the social security heart of every posting within the EU, the EEA and Switzerland. It evidences that the posted worker remains insured in the social security system of their home country — and therefore that no social security contributions arise in Germany. The basis is the EU regulation on the coordination of social security systems (Regulation (EC) No 883/2004): for a temporary posting of no more than 24 months expected, the law of the posting state remains applicable.

The A1 is always applied for in the country of origin — at the competent social security institution there, not at a German body. In Poland that is ZUS, in Romania CNPP, in Croatia HZMO, in Hungary the competent administrative authority; each country has its own point of contact and increasingly electronic application routes. The application should be made before the assignment begins, and the certificate should be available during the work in Germany — it is regularly requested during customs inspections or on site. What works well in practice: a copy with the worker, the original or a digital version to hand at the company.

Important for the workers themselves: with the A1 they remain covered by health insurance at home and use their European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) for visits to the doctor in Germany. What posted staff should sort out personally beyond that — from the registration question to a bank account — we have summarised in a separate guide: working in Germany: the first steps.

Which German working conditions apply to posted workers?

The Posted Workers Act ensures that staff working in Germany do not work under worse conditions than are customary here — regardless of where their employer is based. The following apply mandatorily, among others: the statutory minimum wage, German maximum working hours and minimum rest periods, the statutory minimum holiday entitlement and the health and safety provisions.

In certain sectors, the AEntG additionally brings generally binding collective agreements into play, which then also bind foreign employers. These sectors include the main and ancillary construction trades, building cleaning and care (§ 4 AEntG). Particularly relevant for construction businesses: the obligation to participate in the holiday fund scheme of SOKA-BAU. Posting construction companies must in principle pay contributions to the German holiday fund — unless they are already affiliated to a comparable institution in their home country and obtain an exemption from SOKA-BAU. Anyone posting construction services to Germany should clarify this point early, because the contributions are a noticeable factor in costing.

How high is the minimum wage in Germany in 2026?

The statutory minimum wage has been 13.90 euros gross per hour since 1 January 2026; on 1 January 2027 it rises to 14.60 euros. It applies to all hours worked in Germany — expressly including staff posted by an employer based abroad. What counts is the place of work, not the company's registered office. Breaches are regulatory offences and can be punished with substantial fines; enforcement is by the customs authority's financial control unit for undeclared work (Finanzkontrolle Schwarzarbeit).

One point is often misrepresented in construction: a generally binding sector minimum wage for construction no longer exists — the former construction minimum wage expired at the end of 2021 and was not extended. Since then, the statutory minimum wage has been the lower limit on German building sites too. The higher collectively agreed wages of the main construction trade bind only businesses bound by the agreement. Caution nonetheless: in other sectors (building cleaning or care, for instance) generally binding sector minimum wages above the statutory minimum wage still exist, and posting businesses must observe them too. Before every assignment, therefore, checking which wage must at least be paid for the specific activity is part of the job — a reliable source is the overviews from German customs (zoll.de) on the applicable minimum working conditions.

How do I notify posted workers to German customs?

Before work begins, the foreign employer must notify its posted staff to customs electronically — through the official Meldeportal-Mindestlohn of the Generalzolldirektion at www.meldeportal-mindestlohn.de. The duty falls on employers based abroad who post workers to Germany in certain sectors of the economy — including construction, building cleaning and haulage, plus the further sectors named in § 2a Schwarzarbeitsbekämpfungsgesetz (the Act to Combat Undeclared Work); the same applies to foreign hirers making workers available in Germany.

The process is straightforward: set up a user account in the portal once, then submit a notification for each assignment with the key details — the place of work, the start and expected duration of the activity and the staff deployed, among other things. After submission you receive a confirmation with a notification ID and timestamp, which you should keep as evidence. If the assignment changes materially (in location or staffing, for instance), the notification must be updated. Without timely notification, fines are a risk — so this step belongs firmly on the checklist before every project start.

What documentation duties apply during the assignment?

Germany requires posting businesses to keep complete records of working time. Under § 17 MiLoG (and the parallel provisions of the AEntG), the start, end and duration of daily working time of every posted worker must be recorded — by the end of the seventh calendar day after the working day at the latest. The records must be kept for at least two years.

On top of this comes the duty to keep documents available: the papers required for a customs inspection — working time records, employment contracts or evidence of the essential working conditions, payslips and proof of payment — must be kept available in German and in Germany, so that they can be produced during an inspection at the place of employment. In practice that means: prepare translations of the contract documents, keep timesheets consistently (on paper or digitally), document wage payments traceably. The financial control unit for undeclared work inspects regularly and without notice, especially on building sites — anyone with the folder ready experiences such inspections as a formality.

Why your German client will scrutinise your compliance

A point foreign companies often underestimate: your German client has a massive interest of its own in you meeting all your obligations. The reason is what is known as client liability (§ 13 MiLoG in conjunction with § 14 AEntG): a business commissioning another business with works or services is liable for the payment of the minimum wage to that business's workers as a guarantor — and that runs through the entire subcontractor chain. If a subcontractor does not pay the minimum wage, its staff can turn directly to the main contractor.

That is why German main and general contractors regularly require evidence from their foreign subcontractors: A1 certificates, confirmations of the customs notification, sometimes clearance certificates from SOKA-BAU and contractual assurances on payment of the minimum wage. Anyone supplying these documents proactively and in full gains a real competitive advantage — clean compliance is a selling point in the German market, not a tiresome add-on. Conversely: patchy evidence costs contracts before the price is even discussed.

Who is responsible for the accommodation of posted workers?

More often than many think: the employer. Two levels interlock here. First, German health and safety law requires accommodation provided or arranged by the employer to be adequate: the Arbeitsstättenverordnung (Workplaces Ordinance, Annex no. 4.4) and the technical rule ASR A4.4 that gives it substance set requirements for living and sleeping areas, fit-out (beds, lockable cupboards, tables, seating), sanitary facilities and occupancy. If the employer does not provide the accommodation itself but organises it through third parties, it remains responsible for its adequacy. Second, excessive accommodation costs must not hollow out the minimum wage — where the accommodation is set off against wages, customs looks closely.

For posting companies that means: accommodation is not a side issue but part of compliance — and at the same time a factor in the motivation and retention of staff. That is exactly the point we take off your hands: Anyrooms arranges vetted worker accommodation throughout Germany — apartments and rooms with a proper fit-out, matched to the place of work, period and team size, including for complete crews and for changing places of work. You tell us the project and the headcount, we supply suitable accommodation with transparent invoicing for your records. That keeps one critical point of the posting checklist reliably done.

The posting checklist at a glance

Before the assignment: apply for A1 certificates in the home country, check the applicable minimum working conditions for the sector (statutory minimum wage, any generally binding sector agreement, and for construction the SOKA-BAU question), submit the notification through the Meldeportal-Mindestlohn, organise accommodation and make sure it is adequate. During the assignment: document working times within seven days, keep documents available in German in Germany, and make sure the A1 and EHIC are with the workers. After the assignment: keep the records for at least two years.

The effort is manageable once the processes are in place — and it pays off twice over: you avoid fines and present yourself to German clients as a reliable partner. On accommodation we are glad to support you from the first project onwards.