Your payslip arrives and the net is suddenly hundreds of euros short — a „damage deduction”, a „correction”, a „repayment instalment” you never agreed to. The rule most employees don’t know: beyond taxes, social security and genuinely agreed items, your employer may set off against your wages only within narrow legal limits — and never below the garnishment-free minimum protected by § 394 BGB and §§ 850 ff. ZPO. A large share of unilateral deductions we see are simply unlawful, and the money is recoverable — if you act within the deadlines.
Deductions that are lawful
Not every deduction is an attack. Legitimate payslip deductions include:
- Statutory withholdings: wage tax, solidarity surcharge (where applicable), church tax, and the employee shares of pension, health, long-term care and unemployment insurance. These are withheld at source by law.
- Agreed deductions: deferred compensation into a company pension (bAV/Entgeltumwandlung), JobRad or other salary-conversion leasing rates, canteen or benefits charges you signed up for. The reference point is your written agreement — see fringe benefits in Germany for how these constructions work.
- Wage garnishment (Lohnpfändung): if a third-party creditor garnishes your wages, the employer must withhold the attachable portion and pay it to the creditor — it has no choice, but it must apply the garnishment table correctly.
- Agreed repayment of advances: a salary advance may be recouped as agreed.
Also worth knowing: under § 107 GewO (Truckverbot), wages must be paid in euros — „payment” in goods or vouchers instead of owed salary is permissible only within tight limits.
Aufrechnung: when the employer offsets its own claims
The battleground is the Aufrechnung — the employer setting off a claim it says it has against your wage claim (overpayment, damage, training costs). The limits:
- The garnishment-free minimum is untouchable. § 394 BGB prohibits set-off against the unattachable part of wages, defined by §§ 850 ff. ZPO. The base exemption is roughly €1,560 net per month for a single employee without dependants (higher with maintenance obligations; the figures adjust annually). Above the exemption, only a portion of the excess is attachable per the statutory table.
- Set-off works on net, not gross. Taxes and social security are withheld first; the employer’s counterclaim can only reach what is attachable of your net.
- Disputed claims are not self-service. An employer that unilaterally deducts a contested damage claim — no acknowledgment, no judgment — acts at its own risk: if the claim fails, it owes the withheld wages plus interest. You do not have to accept „we decided you owe us, so we kept your salary”.
- Declaration required: a set-off must be declared and comprehensible — a mystery minus line on the payslip is not a lawful Aufrechnung.
Damage to employer property: the internal liability gradient
„You crashed the van / lost the laptop / botched the order — we’re taking it off your salary.” Before any deduction question, the liability question: under the principles of innerbetrieblicher Schadensausgleich developed by the BAG, employee liability for damage caused in work performed for the employer is graded by fault:
- Leichteste Fahrlässigkeit (slightest negligence): no liability at all.
- Normale/mittlere Fahrlässigkeit (ordinary negligence): the damage is apportioned between employer and employee — often around half, adjusted for the risk profile of the work, the damage amount relative to salary, and insurance the employer could reasonably have taken.
- Grobe Fahrlässigkeit (gross negligence): in principle full liability, but case law caps excessive burdens relative to earnings.
- Vorsatz (intent): full liability.
The employer bears the burden of proving fault. Everyday mishaps — a dropped device, a parking scrape, a routine error under time pressure — are typically in the zero-to-partial zone. An employer that deducts the full repair bill has usually skipped the entire legal analysis.
Overpayments and training costs
Overpaid salary can be reclaimed under unjust-enrichment law (§ 812 BGB), but with real defences: if you spent the money in good faith on ordinary living, the Entreicherung defence (§ 818(3) BGB) can defeat the claim; contractual Ausschlussfristen cut both ways and often extinguish the employer’s repayment claim within months; and recovery still cannot dip below the garnishment-free minimum via set-off.
Training-cost clawbacks („repay the course fees if you leave within two years”) are valid only under strict conditions: the training must bring you a genuine market benefit, the binding period must be proportionate to the training’s length and cost, the repayment amount must reduce pro rata for every month served, and the clause must not penalise exits the employer is responsible for. A large fraction of standard clauses fails at least one test — and even a valid claim must respect the set-off limits above rather than being harvested from your final payslip.
What to do when the payslip is suddenly short
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Identify the deduction line
Compare the payslip with the previous month and your contract. Which line changed — gross, a benefit line, or a new minus item? Demand the calculation basis if it isn’t stated.
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Object in writing immediately
A short text-form message: you do not accept the deduction, you demand payment of the withheld amount, and you request the legal basis. This blocks any „acknowledged by silence” narrative.
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Assert the shortfall within the Ausschlussfrist
A formal Geltendmachung of the exact amount within the contractual forfeiture window — typically three months from the due date.
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Sue for the difference if not corrected
Withheld wages are enforced like unpaid wages — payment claim at the Arbeitsgericht, plus default interest. See our guide on late salary for the escalation path.
The escalation logic and interest rules are the same as for wages not paid at all — details in late salary.
Worked example
A delivery driver in Cologne, single, no children, earns €2,600 net. Reversing in a tight yard, he damages the company van and a gate — repair bill €4,800. The employer announces it will deduct €1,200 per month for four months. The next payslip shows net €1,400.
The legal reality:
- Liability first: a routine reversing accident under delivery time pressure is ordinary negligence at most — under the internal liability gradient, the driver owes a share, not everything. Assume apportionment leads to roughly €2,000, not €4,800; if the employer skipped reasonably available fleet insurance, less still.
- Set-off limit second: with €2,600 net and no dependants, the garnishment-free base of roughly €1,560 is protected; of the excess, only the table portion — in this bracket roughly €700 per month — is attachable at all.
- Result: the €1,200 deduction is unlawful twice over — it assumes full liability and it invades the protected minimum. Lawful maximum recovery: about €700 per month, and only up to the properly apportioned amount, and only once liability is established or agreed.
After a lawyer’s letter, the employer refunds the excess deduction and settles the damage issue at €1,800, paid in instalments of €450 — €3,000 less than it originally „deducted itself”, and the driver’s monthly liquidity is preserved.
Frequently asked questions
The till was short and my employer deducts the difference from my salary. Allowed?
Almost never automatically. Cash-shortage liability (Mankohaftung) requires either proven fault under the internal liability gradient or a valid Mankoabrede — which is only enforceable if you receive a corresponding shortage allowance and the risk is proportionate. Blanket „shortages come out of wages” practices don’t hold.
I broke a company laptop. Do I have to pay for it?
Depends on fault: slightest negligence — nothing; ordinary negligence — a share; gross negligence — potentially the (capped) full amount. The employer must prove the fault level, and it cannot simply net the price off your salary while you dispute it.
My employer overpaid me for months and now wants everything back at once. Must I repay?
In principle overpayments are repayable, but check three defences: Entreicherung (spent in good faith on ordinary living), the contractual Ausschlussfrist (often the strongest — employer claims forfeit too), and set-off limits (repayment cannot be harvested below the protected minimum). Never sign a repayment schedule before these are checked.
Can the employer offset claims against my severance instead of my salary?
Severance is not wage income in the garnishment sense, so the protection is weaker — which is exactly why employers like to net claims there. Whether the set-off is valid depends on the settlement wording and the merits of the counterclaim. Negotiate explicit wording that the severance is paid without deductions beyond taxes; on the tax side see severance taxation.
What happens to my JobRad or bAV deductions during unpaid periods or after termination?
Salary-conversion arrangements assume salary to convert. In unpaid periods (long sickness, parental leave) the leasing agreements typically require separate arrangements, and on exit the lease usually ends or converts to a purchase option. Watch final payslips closely — end-of-contract benefit settlements are a common source of wrong deductions.