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The introduction of two weeks of paid partner leave after the birth of a child is now planned for "early 2024" - after the EU Commission had already initiated infringement proceedings against Germany in September 2022 for failing to implement the corresponding EU directive.
In March 2023, the German Ministry of Family Affairs presented a draft bill that would allow the second, non-birthing parent to take ten days paid leave after the birth. This family start time is intended to create a protective and safe space during the first few days after the birth and at the same time create impetus for the division of tasks between partners with regard to the compatibility of family and career.

The contribution to nursing care insurance already increased on 1 July 2023 (3.4%), while all other contribution rates and the insolvency benefit contribution remain unchanged from previous year. Only the “average additional contribution” to statutory health insurance will rise to 1.7%. The maximum additional employer costs are therefore generally just over EUR 1,500 (monthly, West).

Since Chat-GPT, ClaudeAI, Bard and comparable large language models ("LLMs") are in the spotlight, employees have certainly already come up with the idea of giving these LLMs tasks that they should fulfil themselves as part of their employment relationship. But are employees allowed to do so? What legal aspects need to be considered? Employers would do well to address this issue, regardless of whether they want to prevent AI use, encourage or prescribe it.

The German Whistleblower Protection Act (“Hinweisgeberschutzgesetz”, HinSchG) has finally entered into force.

Severance payments are commonplace in the case of termination of employment contracts by mutual agreement. But what are the right legal steps to take and, above all, what sums should employers expect to pay their employees?

As an employer, you are obliged to issue and submit various certificates at the request of former employees or the Employment Agency. Since 1 January 2023, this is no longer possible in paper form, but electronic transmission via the so-called electronic notification procedure BEA (“Bescheinigungen elektronisch annehmen“, meaning "accept certificates electronically") is mandatory.

The German government is currently working on a draft law to simplify the immigration of skilled workers and has published the key points of the proposed draft.

When employing in Germany, employers will face additional costs on top of gross salary as contracted with their staff. German social security contributions can amount to > EUR 1,400 each month, so an extra 17k annually.
Generally speaking, half of social security contributions are paid by employing companies (on top of gross salary) while the other half is to be paid by employees. Still, the employer is obliged to do all payroll deductions and transfer the amounts to respective insurances and the wage tax authority. In return, German employees are covered under health insurance, nursing care insurance, unemployment insurance and the statutory pension system.