💶 Maternity pay (Mutterschaftsgeld)
In brief
During the protection periods before and after the birth, female employees with statutory health insurance receive maternity pay (Mutterschaftsgeld) from their health insurance fund as well as an employer's supplement that makes up the difference to your previous average net earnings. Together, the two benefits are meant to ensure that you are no worse off financially during the protection period than before. Women with private health insurance and women not in employment have different, usually much lower entitlements against the Bundesamt für Soziale Sicherung (Federal Office for Social Security) – check your individual case there or with an advice centre.
Step by step
- Obtain a certificateAsk your doctor or midwife to issue a certificate of the calculated due date.
- Apply to the health insurance fundSubmit the certificate to your statutory health insurance fund no earlier than 7 weeks before the calculated date to apply for maternity pay.
- Obtain an earnings certificate from your employerYour employer must certify to the health insurance fund your average net earnings over the last three settled calendar months (or 13 weeks if pay is settled weekly).
- Claim the employer's supplementCheck that your employer pays, in addition to the health insurance fund's maternity pay, the supplement covering the difference to your previous net salary.
- Apply separately if privately insured or not insuredIf you have private health insurance, are insured as a family member or are not in employment, submit the separate application to the Bundesamt für Soziale Sicherung or find out there about your specific entitlement.
Deadlines
- The exact amount of maternity pay paid by the health insurance fund (daily rate with a statutory cap) and the amount of any one-off payment for privately insured/non-employed women change from time to time; reliable, current amounts are available directly from your health insurance fund or the Bundesamt für Soziale Sicherung – amounts are deliberately not given here so as not to spread an outdated figure.
- The employer's supplement is a separate obligation of the employer and must be applied for or claimed independently of the fund's benefit – it is not automatically paid along with it by the health insurance fund.
- Self-employed women generally have no entitlement to maternity pay under the MuSchG, but with voluntary statutory insurance including a sickness benefit entitlement may, under certain conditions, receive comparable benefits from their health insurance fund – this must be clarified in the individual case.
In depth · legal basis, figures and practice – for advisers and professionals
Basis of entitlement and calculation
§ 19 MuSchG governs the entitlement of female employees with statutory health insurance and a sickness benefit entitlement to maternity pay from their health insurance fund for the duration of the protection periods. The amount is based on the average daily net earnings of the last three settled calendar months before the start of the protection period (where pay is settled weekly: of the last 13 weeks), limited by a statutory daily cap. Under § 20 MuSchG, the employer pays the difference between this amount and the maternity pay paid by the health insurance fund as a supplement.
Different situations
Women who do not have statutory health insurance with a sickness benefit entitlement (e.g. privately insured, voluntarily insured without sickness benefit entitlement, insured as family members or in marginal employment without membership) receive instead, on application, a benefit under § 24i SGB V or a one-off payment from the Bundesamt für Soziale Sicherung (§ 19 Abs. 2, 3 MuSchG); the specific caps on these benefits are significantly lower than for maternity pay from the health insurance fund and should be asked about directly at the responsible office.
Relationship to parental allowance
Maternity pay and the employer's supplement are offset against parental allowance for the first months of life (§ 3 BEEG), since both benefits can cover the same period. In practice, mothers usually receive no additional parental allowance for the months of the maternity protection period, because the offset "uses up" these months – but the months in question still count as months of entitlement.
A question about your situation that this page does not answer? Write to us or use the contact form – we will tell you which office is responsible and what to bring. Free of charge, without individual legal advice.