Germany's 2026 minimum wage and working time records: what customs wants to see

Since 1 January 2026 the statutory minimum wage in Germany is 13.90 euros gross per hour, set by the MiLoG together with the Mindestlohnanpassungsverordnung. Employers in the sectors listed in section 2a SchwarzArbG must record the start, end and duration of daily working time. The Finanzkontrolle Schwarzarbeit, the customs unit for undeclared work, inspects exactly those records, usually unannounced and on the premises.

For an employer with foreign staff the duty carries more than a fine. The record is the only evidence that the wage actually paid meets the minimum, and it is the same document the Ausländerbehörde later reads when it asks whether the employment matched the conditions of the residence title.

The seven day deadline and the two year retention

Section 17(1) MiLoG fixes two numbers that come up in every inspection. Start, end and duration of daily working time must be recorded by the end of the seventh calendar day following the day the work was performed. The records must be kept for at least two years, counted from the date relevant for the record.

Seven days means seven calendar days. Not seven working days, and not until the next payroll run. A timesheet reconstructed at month end from memory or from site diaries is a late record, even where the figures turn out correct. Customs treats that as a breach of the recording duty regardless of whether the minimum wage was in fact paid.

The duty applies to every business in the eleven sectors of section 2a SchwarzArbG, among them construction, hospitality and accommodation, meat processing, freight and logistics, and the security trade. It also applies to all marginally employed staff in any sector. Those are precisely the corridors where skilled and seasonal workers from third countries arrive, which is why inspection rates and foreign headcount overlap there.

What a breach costs

The MiLoG separates the paperwork from the money, and the two ranges differ by a factor of sixteen.

For construction and logistics firms the last line is the expensive one. Section 19 MiLoG allows exclusion from the award of public contracts once a fine reaches 2,500 euros, and an exclusion hits the order book harder than the fine itself. How an inspection by the Finanzkontrolle Schwarzarbeit actually unfolds is set out in customs inspections for undeclared work.

Where inspections snag on foreign staff

Three patterns recur with third country workforces, and none of them starts as intent.

First, accommodation. Where housing is provided and deducted from wages, an excessive deduction drops the hourly wage actually received below 13.90 euros. Customs recalculates the net amount per hour, not the gross figure in the contract. Which deductions hold up is covered in accommodation duties for foreign workers.

Second, unrecorded time. Changing into protective clothing, internal travel between halls, driving between two sites and ordered preparation time count as working time and belong in the record. Left out, the arithmetic produces an hourly rate below the minimum even though the payslip looks clean.

Third, evidence in the language of the inspection. Customs wants the documents in German and at the place of employment, not at a head office abroad. With seasonal staff the count of the 70 working days has to agree with the working time record; those rules sit in the 70 working days seasonal rule.

In practice that means daily capture on site, closing each entry by the seventh calendar day, a two year archive, and one named person who knows where the files are when inspectors arrive unannounced. A digital system satisfies the duty exactly as a paper timesheet does, provided start, end and duration per day are legible and later changes remain visible.

The minimum wage itself is a single figure and quickly checked. What slows an inspection down, and what triggers the fines, is the record behind it. An employer who keeps it daily has mainly one question to answer when customs arrives, which is where the files are. The wider set of employer duties in international hiring is collected on our employers page.