How is the German statutory pension calculated?

Each year your salary divided by the national average wage (Durchschnittsentgelt) gives your Entgeltpunkte for that year. Add them across your career, multiply by the access factor and the current pension value (Rentenwert, around 39.32 EUR per point per month in 2024), to get your gross monthly Rente.

What is the 18.6 percent contribution rate?

The Rentenversicherung contribution is 18.6 percent of gross pay up to the Beitragsbemessungsgrenze, split evenly between employee and employer at 9.3 percent each. Contributions buy you earnings points; one point is earned in a year you earn exactly the national average wage.

What are Riester and Rürup pensions?

Riester is a state-subsidised private pension with allowances and tax relief, suited to employees and families. Rürup (Basisrente) is a tax-deductible private pension popular with the self-employed and high earners. Both supplement the statutory pension and are modelled here as compounding pots.

What is the access factor (Zugangsfaktor)?

It adjusts your pension for when you claim. Claiming at your standard retirement age gives a factor of 1.0. Each month early reduces it by 0.3 percent and each month later increases it by 0.5 percent, so retiring early permanently lowers your monthly pension.

Is the projected pension before or after tax?

It is a gross figure. German pensions are increasingly taxable (the taxable share rises each cohort) and health and long-term-care contributions are deducted. Treat the result as gross monthly income and budget for tax and social contributions on top.

Germany Pension & Retirement Calculator

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Germany’s pension comes from three pillars: the statutory gesetzliche Rentenversicherung, occupational schemes, and private pots like Riester and Rürup. This calculator focuses on the statutory pillar using the official Entgeltpunkte method and lets you bolt on private contributions to see your total.

How it works

The statutory pension is built from earnings points. In any year you earn one point if your salary equals the national average wage; earn double the average and you get two points that year. Your points are multiplied by the pension value:

points per year = min(salary, contribution ceiling) / average wage
total points     = points per year * contribution years
monthly Rente    = total points * access factor * Rentenwert (≈ 39.32 EUR)

Private pots are projected as monthly contributions compounding at your expected return, then converted to a monthly income using a simple drawdown rate.

Example

Someone earning the national average wage for 40 years accumulates 40 points. At a Rentenwert of 39.32 EUR and an access factor of 1.0 that is roughly 1,573 EUR gross per month. Earning 30 percent above average for the same period would raise it to about 2,045 EUR, before any private pension.

Notes

The statutory figure is gross and ignores tax and the health and care contributions deducted from pensions. The Rentenwert and ceiling change yearly; the private-pot projection is a simplified compounding model. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.