Pension Germany: How to calculate how much you will get in old age. With a simple formula, you can use the hourly wage earned in Germany to calculate how much money you will receive in retirement.
If you want to know now how much money you can expect to have in old age, you can use the pension formula to find out for yourself. According to the German pension insurance (DRV), the average annual salary is currently 41,541 euros.
Based on this average, then you can calculate pension points. If you earn exactly 41,541 euros per year, you will receive 1.0 pension points at the end of this year.
German pension calculation formula
The value of a pension point is currently 34.19 euros in the old federal states and 33.23 euros in the new federal states. But this value can change again and again.
Example: Whoever earns exactly the corresponding average salary for a pension point, ie currently 41,541 euros, in West Germany for 45 years has exactly 45 pension points at the end.
According to the pension formula, this means 45 times the current 34.19 euros and thus results in a monthly pension of 1538.55 euros per month.
The final calculation should take into account surcharges and deductions (access factor) as well as the pension factor – usually reaching the retirement limit. In our example, we assume that there are no surcharges or deductions and that the type of pension is an old-age pension.
Pension formula for old-age pension under German pension insurance:
Payment points X access factor X current value of the pension X pension type factor = monthly value of the pension
How to calculate your pension in Germany
But how much do you have to earn with a weekly working time of 37.7 hours to get a gross annual salary of 41,541 euros and thus 1.0 pension point? Bild.de has calculated how much an employee must earn per hour to be above the average pension, ie 1538.55 euros per month. This amount is also known as the basic pension.
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| Hourly wage 2021 in euros | Monthly pension in euros for one year of work | Monthly pension in euros after 45 years |
| 10 | 16.2 | 725.39 |
| 12 | 19:34 | 870.47 |
| 14 | 22.57 | 1015.54 |
| 16 | 25.79 | 1160.62 |
| 18 | 29.02 | 1305.70 |
| 20 | 32.24 | 1450.78 |
| 22 | 35.46 | 1595.86 |
| 24 | 38.69 | 1740.93 |
| 26 | 41.91 | 1886.01 |
| 28 | 45:14 | 2031.09 |
| 30 | 48.36 | 2176.17 |
Pension in Germany: how much do I need to survive in my old age?
Pension expert Johannes Steffen explained to Bild.de that an hourly salary of 16.27 euros is currently required in order to be able to arrive later as a sole pensioner without support.
From 21.19 euros you would receive the basic pension of 1538.55 euros. Because if you earn 21.19 euros per hour all year round in a full-time job with 37.7 hours per week, you end up with exactly the average annual salary of 41,541 euros and thus a pension point. If you work exactly like this for 45 years, you get the basic pension.
A barber in Munich with a salary of 12.08 euros would have only a pension of 870 euros per month and would therefore be dependent on state aid.