MySkills Academy
Careers. Which part time jobs are good jobs in Germany?
While talking about part time jobs (or “Nebenjobs” in German), MySkills Academy wants to share valuable information about most common types of employment, which give the possibility to work less than 40 hours per week, thus are not considered full time jobs. In this blog post, we will talk about self employment, freelancer jobs, minijob and student jobs. Moreover, we will explain to you, how to be flexible within “gig-economy-jobs”, which nowadays have become a mainstream form of part time jobs.
Part time jobs: Self employment
Let’s start with the commonly most confusing form of employment – self employment. Self employment can also be considered as a part time job. A common mistake made by foreigners in Germany is to not value self employment as a top job opportunity – mostly because of its specific tax implications. However, with the right knowledge and guidance all doubts should vanish and position self employment as a highly relevant vehicle in getting a job. Here is the most important information, which you need to know about self employment:
1) You should have a business license (or “Gewerbeschein” in German) to work as self employed. However, it’s not as difficult to get one as you might think. Usually, it is processed within one day, giving you the possibility to start your new business career right away. You can find more detailed information in our article about business licences.
2) You have to declare the income by yourself. Often this is viewed as something critical when thinking about self employment. Actually it is not though! As a self employed you can deduct a huge variety of expenses from your income, like transportation costs, materials, phone bills, per diems etc. We strongly recommend writing down all possible spendings while on job search, so you will have an idea, how you could benefit from the concrete job vacancy you are evaluating and potentially decide to become self employed instead.
3) Furthermore, self employment surely benefits everyone who is looking for flexible English jobs in Germany. The proportion of possibilities for self employment in English is simply higher. Many foreigners who work abroad prefer this type of flexible employment because it gives the opportunity to be independent, aspects a full time job can not provide.
4) You will have to pay for insurance yourself. If you earn less than 9169 Euro per year in taxable income it is though, you are exempted from taxation. In this case, 9169 Euro is the amount after all deductions from gross income, of which we were talking before. We recommend reading our short information about taxation but it’s always a good idea to have a consultation with official authorities before moving on with any job application.
Part time jobs: Freelancer jobs
Similar to self employment jobs are freelancer jobs (or “Freiberufler” jobs in German), which can also be considered as part time jobs. The difference between self employment and freelance is the possibility of a self employed worker to run his own business, while a freelancer has to always find a job by himself and fulfil mostly one-time requests.
A common mistake is considering freelancer jobs only as online jobs, while missing out on the real freelancer opportunities of working in an office on a project-base position. For sure, many freelancers are still working remotely. Some of the popular freelancer jobs in Germany are: artists, interpreters, advisors and others.
Freelancer jobs and self employment legally differ and we recommend to analyze carefully all the subtleties to realize which type you prefer if you are deciding between these two options.
Minijob
The Minijob is one of the most popular employment types in Germany. To cut the long story short, here is the most important information you should know about this form of part time job:
1) Minijob employees earn up to 450 Euro per month, which means they cannot exceed the 5400 Euro per year. Sometimes in a job application, the word “minijob” is substituted by “450 Euro job”, so don’t be surprised. Minijob has to pay minimum wage.
2) A common mistake of foreigners is disregarding minijob possibilities while searching for a job for English speakers, as some sources write fake information about legal requirements of this employment type. Remember: it is always worth to have a minijob since you earn up to 450€ tax free per month! Minijob can be both, an additional and the main source of income. So you could easily consider this job vacancy as a great possibility for part time jobs.
3) The coolest thing about this employment type in Germany is that you won’t pay any taxes, the employer covers them and you have less headache. Moreover, employers who offer jobs at 450 Euro per month, are also obligated to pay for yours minijob insurance!
If you don’t want to “make money” and 450 Euro per month is enough for you, minijob could be an interesting choice from all part time jobs in the market.
Part time jobs: Student jobs
If you are officially studying in Germany, you should be aware of student jobs possibilities and how to become a working student (Germans say “Werkstudent”). As always, here are 3 important facts about student part time jobs:
1) Students are not allowed to work more than 20 hours per week, but during the lecture free time, a conversion to a full time job is possible
2) Students at work should fill out individual sheets containing their working hours. Most companies propose flexible jobs with a pre-agreed comfortable schedule, which makes this type of employment very attractive.
3) A working student pays only income tax and has normally a governmental student health insurance which costs approximately 110 Euro per month (if you are not insured through a family insurance in Germany).
Part time jobs and working student jobs are very popular among students in Germany, as they are able to study and cover the basic living expenses.
Flexible jobs: Gig jobs
We want to tell you about a modern segment of part time jobs – “gig jobs”, which are basically a form of self employment. Gig workers are independent self employed contractors, who provide their services to customers through another company’s digital platform. The most commonly known example is Uber. Ultimately, you are free to decide when you want to work, for whom you want to work and where you want to work and even decide what you want to earn. As previously mentioned, gig-jobs are directly linked to an online marketplace, a so-called platform. We recommend reading our post about the benefits of online marketplaces.
Finally, if you are currently searching for a job and are interested in self employment, MySkills Academy has cool news for you: you are just one step from becoming a “gig-jobber”!
We cooperate with online platforms to help all our candidates to find a job. Currently we offer jobs in: Cleaning, Delivery, Furniture assembly, Gardening, Moving, Pet care, Supermarket and Warehouse. What do you need in order to get jobs within a self employment platform of our partners? You only need to fill out our 1-minute application form, pass our free 30-minutes online training and start receiving job offers as an independent part time worker. We are helping people to find a job throughout Germany, so don’t be surprised by the overwhelming amount of local jobs offers that you will receive! Click here to start your new career!
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