Overview

• Berlin plans to increase its prisoner hourly wage from around €2.50 to €4.25, with the change slated to take effect after the summer break of 2025 pending parliamentary approval.
• Bavaria will boost its basic pay to €3.37 per hour from July 1, 2025, replacing the current rate of €2.02.
• The Federal Constitutional Court ruled in 2023 that wages below €2 are unconstitutional and mandated states to overhaul their compensation rules by June 2025.
• All new wage rates are calculated at 15 percent of the average earnings of Germany’s pension insurance contributors, up from the previous 6–9 percent levels.
• Inmate labor is largely mandatory—employing about 70 percent of Berlin’s prisoners—and its revenue covers only roughly five percent of prison operating costs.