The contribution ceiling: where Austrian social insurance stops
For higher earners in Austria: the monthly amount above which no further social insurance is charged, and what that does to your take-home pay.
In 2026 the Austrian contribution ceiling (Höchstbeitragsgrundlage) is €6,930 gross per month, or €231 per calendar day, plus a separate annual cap of €13,860 for the two special payments, holiday pay and Christmas pay. Anything you earn above it is free of social insurance. The employee share therefore peaks at €1,252.25 a month, which is 18.07 % of €6,930; in Vienna, where the housing contribution is higher, the peak is €1,269.58. The special payments together never cost more than €2,365.90, so a full year tops out at €17,392.90. On a salary of €8,000 this brings the effective rate down to 15.7 %. Freelance employees (freie Dienstnehmer) without special payments have a higher monthly cap of €8,085. The figures are re-indexed every year with an official revaluation factor, 1.073 for 2026. Wage tax has no such ceiling and keeps rising with the scale.
What the contribution ceiling caps for you
Social insurance per month
€1,252.25
| without the ceiling it would be | €1,445.60 |
| Saving from the ceiling | €193.35 |
| Effective rate | 15.7 % |
| Ceiling 2026 | €6,930 |
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Calculation method
The 2026 ceilings at a glance
| Ceiling | Amount 2026 |
|---|---|
| per calendar day | €231.00 |
| per month (regular pay) | €6,930.00 |
| special payments per calendar year | €13,860.00 |
| freelance employees without special payments, per month | €8,085.00 |
| revaluation factor 2026 | 1.073 |
Legally the ceiling is a daily limit: according to ÖGK contribution rules, your average contribution base per calendar day may not exceed €231. A full insured month always counts as 30 days, which gives the €6,930. Special payments, the 13th and 14th salary that most Austrian employees receive as holiday pay (Urlaubszuschuss) and Christmas pay (Weihnachtsremuneration), have a separate annual pot. The amounts are raised each year by the revaluation factor (Aufwertungszahl), 1.073 for 2026 (ÖGK, variable values 2026).
Where your contributions stop growing
Up to €6,930 gross, every extra euro adds 18.07 % to your employee contribution, made up of health, pension and unemployment insurance plus the Chamber of Labour levy and the housing contribution (Chamber of Commerce rates 2026). At the ceiling each part reaches its maximum.
| Component | Rate | Maximum per month |
|---|---|---|
| Health insurance | 3.87 % | €268.19 |
| Pension insurance | 10.25 % | €710.33 |
| Unemployment insurance | 2.95 % | €204.44 |
| Chamber of Labour levy | 0.50 % | €34.65 |
| Housing contribution (outside Vienna) | 0.50 % | €34.65 |
| Total | 18.07 % | €1,252.25 |
If you work in Vienna, the housing contribution is 0.75 % from 2026, so your maximum is €1,269.58. Special payments carry neither the Chamber levy nor the housing contribution, and both together cost at most €2,365.90. That gives a hard annual limit of €17,392.90 in employee contributions, whether you earn €97,020 a year or twice that.
What the cap does to your net pay
Above the ceiling, social insurance shrinks as a share of your gross. Wage tax, however, is charged on gross minus social insurance; since the contribution stays flat, your taxable pay now grows one-for-one with your salary.
| Gross per month | Employee SI | Share of gross | Wage tax | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| €6,000 | €1,084.20 | 18.1 % | €1,207.85 | €3,707.95 |
| €6,930 | €1,252.25 | 18.1 % | €1,512.63 | €4,165.12 |
| €8,000 | €1,252.25 | 15.7 % | €2,010.47 | €4,737.28 |
| €10,000 | €1,252.25 | 12.5 % | €2,970.47 | €5,777.28 |
| €12,000 | €1,252.25 | 10.4 % | €3,970.44 | €6,777.31 |
When negotiating pay at this level, look at the marginal rate. Just below €6,930 an extra €100 gross leaves €49.16. Just above it you keep €60.00, because only the 40 percent tax band applies. From €7,127 gross the 48 percent band starts and you keep €52.00. Detailed breakdowns are on the pages for €7,000 gross and €10,000 gross.
Your social insurance contribution item by item
Social insurance per month
€386.88
| Total rate | 16.12 % |
| Pension | €246.00 |
| Health | €92.88 |
| Unemployment (1.00 %) | €24.00 |
Holiday and Christmas pay have their own cap
The €13,860 limit for special payments runs per calendar year, not per payment. Say you earn €9,000 a month and receive €9,000 holiday pay in June: the whole amount is subject to contributions, because the annual pot is not yet used up. In November only €4,860 of your Christmas pay is charged and the rest is free. The order decides which payment costs more; the annual total is the same.
ÖGK also adds up several employment contracts with the same employer in the same year, so special payments already charged under an earlier contract reduce the remaining pot. You can model both payments month by month in the holiday and Christmas pay calculator.
Part months, freelancers and the severance fund
- Starting or leaving mid-month: each insured day counts as one thirtieth of the monthly ceiling, so 15 days give a cap of €3,465.
- Freelance employees (freie Dienstnehmer, a contract type between employee and self-employed): without special payments the cap is €8,085 a month; with them, the employee figures apply.
- Severance fund: the employer's 1.53 % contribution is paid on your full pay, above the ceiling too (ÖGK).
Your employer saves as well
The employer's own social insurance share of 20.98 % also stops at €6,930. Payroll taxes such as the family fund contribution, its surcharge and the municipal tax are still charged on the full salary. The employer cost calculator shows the total cost of a salary above the cap.
Two jobs at once: a pension refund
Each employer applies the ceiling only to what it pays you. With two well-paid jobs at the same time you can end up paying contributions on more than the ceiling overall. For pension insurance, section 70 of the General Social Insurance Act (ASVG) provides a refund: if the sum of all your contribution bases in a year, special payments included, exceeds the sum of the monthly ceilings, 45 % of the revalued contributions on the excess are paid back. For this purpose the monthly ceiling is 35 times the daily figure, €8,085. A single full-year job with two special payments reaches at most €97,020, exactly twelve of these monthly limits. By law the refund is made by 30 June of the year after the contributions were fully paid. Section 70 covers pension insurance only, not health or unemployment insurance.