Working alongside or after the start of your pension is easier than most employees think: since 1 January 2023 you may earn unlimited amounts next to any old-age pension — including early ones — without losing a cent of pension, and your dismissal protection does not shrink because you draw a pension. What remains tricky are the technical layers: social-security quirks that quietly waste employer contributions, an opt-in that turns them into real pension increases, and fixed-term traps when contracts are extended past pension age. This guide walks through the money mechanics and the contract law.
The 2023 game changer: unlimited Hinzuverdienst
For decades, early old-age pensions came with earnings limits (Hinzuverdienstgrenzen): earn too much before reaching the standard retirement age (Regelaltersgrenze) and your pension was cut. Those limits were abolished for old-age pensions with effect from 1 January 2023. The consequences:
- You can draw an early old-age pension (e.g., from 63 as a long-term insured person) and keep working full-time at full pay — pension and salary stack without any offset.
- The early-retirement deductions (0.3% per month of early claiming, permanently) still apply — the abolition removed the earnings cap, not the actuarial discount.
- Earnings limits continue to exist for disability pensions (Erwerbsminderungsrenten) — if you draw one of those, check the limits before taking a job.
Working while drawing the Regelaltersrente: the contribution quirk
Once you have reached the Regelaltersgrenze and draw a full old-age pension, your employment becomes exempt from pension-insurance liability on your side (§ 5(4) SGB VI) and from unemployment insurance. But here is the quirk employees rarely know:
- Your employer keeps paying its half of the pension contribution (and its half of the unemployment contribution) — by law, even though you are exempt.
- By default, those employer contributions raise your pension by nothing. They flow into the system without being credited to your account. Money is being paid „for you” that never reaches you.
The RV opt-in: make the contributions count
You can waive the exemption and opt back into pension insurance (declaration to the employer, effective for the future). Then you pay your employee share — and both halves are credited to your pension account. Your pension is recalculated every 1 July to reflect the new contributions, so continued work produces a genuinely growing pension. For well-paid post-retirement work, the implied „return” on your own contribution share is attractive because the employer’s share, which would otherwise evaporate, is captured too. A separate lever: anyone who delays claiming the pension past the Regelaltersgrenze earns a supplement of 0.5% per month of deferral (6% per year) on top of additional contribution credits.
Health insurance and Krankengeld
Your employment remains subject to health and nursing-care insurance regardless of age — contributions continue from both sides, and you stay insured through the job. Two particulars:
- No Krankengeld while drawing the full Regelaltersrente: recipients are excluded from sickness benefit (§ 50 SGB V). You receive the six weeks of employer-paid sick leave like everyone else, but the Krankengeld phase after week six does not follow — the pension is deemed to cover that risk.
- No ALG 1 after the Regelaltersgrenze: entitlement to unemployment benefit ends with the month you reach standard retirement age — one reason the employee share of unemployment insurance is switched off. Details on the benefit system are in ALG 1 for expats.
Fixed-term contracts after pension start: where the traps are
Employers almost never offer post-retirement work on open-ended terms — they want fixed terms. The legal quality of those fixed terms varies enormously:
Route 1: postponing the end date (§ 41 sentence 3 SGB VI) — the clean one
If your contract ends at the Regelaltersgrenze via a retirement clause, you and the employer can agree — before the end date — to postpone it, repeatedly. Only the date may be changed; bundling a role change or reduced hours into the same agreement endangers its validity. This is the safest construction for both sides and should be your first proposal.
Route 2: a new fixed-term contract with your old employer — the dangerous one
Once the employment has ended and a new contract is signed, a fixed term „without objective reason” (sachgrundlose Befristung, § 14(2) TzBfG) is generally blocked: it is prohibited where a prior employment with the same employer existed (Vorbeschäftigungsverbot) — and you have decades of it. The fallback in § 14(3) TzBfG (fixed terms up to five years for employees aged 52+) requires at least four months of unemployment or transfer benefits immediately before — which someone moving seamlessly from work to pension to work does not have. That leaves fixed terms with objective reasons (project work, substitution, or the pension entitlement combined with concrete succession planning, which the BAG accepts within limits). The upside of a botched fixed term is entirely yours: an invalid Befristung means an open-ended contract, enforceable by an Entfristungsklage within three weeks of the agreed end date — the mechanics are similar to those described in fixed-term contracts.
Route 3: a fixed-term contract with a new employer
Unproblematic: with an employer you never worked for, a sachgrundlose Befristung of up to two years (with up to three extensions within that frame) is available regardless of your age or pension.
Dismissal protection: unchanged by age or pension
There is no „pensioner discount” on employment protection. The KSchG applies with full force; pension entitlement is expressly not a dismissal ground (§ 41 SGB VI); notice periods reflect your (long) tenure; and a dismissal motivated by age is an AGG problem on top. Employers who assume a working pensioner can be „let go informally” lose those cases — and the settlement value of long tenure does not expire at 67.
Worked example
An engineer in Cologne reaches the Regelaltersgrenze and draws a Regelaltersrente of €1,900. His employer wants to keep him two more days a week: 16 hours at €2,600 gross per month. Before the end date, both sides sign a § 41 sentence 3 SGB VI postponement for 24 months — only the date is changed; the hours reduction is agreed in a separate amendment to keep the postponement clean.
He files the RV opt-in. His employee pension contribution: 9.3% × €2,600 = €241.80 per month; the employer pays the same again, and now both halves count. Over a year, contributions are paid on €31,200. Using round illustrative figures — average national earnings of about €50,000 and a pension-point value of about €40 — that is roughly 0.62 earnings points, i.e. about €25 more monthly pension, permanently, added each July. Over the two years he banks roughly €50/month of extra lifetime pension for a personal outlay of about €5,800 — before even counting the salary itself: 24 × €2,600 = €62,400 gross stacked on top of €45,600 of pension in the same period, with no offset between the two.
Frequently asked questions
Will my early pension be cut if I keep working full-time?
No — the earnings limits for old-age pensions were abolished with effect from 1 January 2023. What remains is the permanent actuarial deduction of 0.3% per month for claiming early. Only disability pensions still carry earnings limits.
Do I still pay social-security contributions after the Regelaltersgrenze?
Health and nursing-care insurance: yes, as before. Pension and unemployment insurance: you are exempt, while the employer continues paying its halves. The pension half can be activated for your benefit via the opt-in; the unemployment half cannot — and you can no longer claim ALG 1 anyway.
Can my old employer rehire me on a simple two-year fixed term after my pension starts?
Usually not validly. The sachgrundlose Befristung is blocked by your prior employment, and the age-52 exception in § 14(3) TzBfG rarely fits a seamless transition. The employer needs an objective reason or the § 41 sentence 3 SGB VI postponement agreed before the original end date. If the fixed term is invalid, you can litigate your way into an open-ended contract — leverage worth knowing about even if you only want better terms.
What happens to my company pension if I keep working?
Occupational pension schemes have their own rules on whether benefits can be drawn alongside continued employment with the same employer — many plans allow it after the Regelaltersgrenze, some defer payment until you actually leave. Check the plan terms; the framework is explained in company pension (bAV).
Is a Minijob alongside my pension worth it?
A Minijob stacks tax-free-ish on top of any old-age pension without affecting it. Note that Minijob earnings are pension-insurable by default with an opt-out; for pensioners past the Regelaltersgrenze the exemption logic above applies. For more than pocket-money work, a regular part-time role with the RV opt-in usually builds more value.