The recently published decision of the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) on the remuneration of civil servants is quite something: Germany's highest court has found that the remuneration of state civil servants in Berlin in salary scales A and in the period from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2020 is unconstitutional. At the same time, the court further developed the standards for reviewing salaries (case reference: 2 BvL 5 /18 and others from 17/09/2025).

The consequences are serious, as the decision has implications beyond the state of Berlin for the salaries of civil servants at federal and state level. Many salary laws could be overturned, appeals by those affected could flood the administrations and, above all, back payments totalling billions could be threatened. It is doubtful whether public budgets will be able to cope with these challenges. In Berlin alone, initial reactions from the House of Representatives indicate that the reserves of EUR 280 million saved will not be sufficient for the subsequent back payments to civil servants.

New standards for salaries

In the view of the BVerfG, the remuneration of civil servants in Berlin since at least 2008 has been in breach of the requirement of minimum remuneration, which arises from the employer's constitutional duty to provide remuneration as a traditional principle of the civil service (Art. 33 para. 5 GG). Sufficient remuneration for civil servants and their families had to be ensured even in the lower salary groups. In the lowest salary groups, this was previously to be guaranteed by a supplement of 15 per cent on the basic pension. The court further develops this previously applicable principle to the effect that in future, the salary must ensure a sufficiently large gap to a real risk of poverty for the civil servant and their family. According to the BVerfG's new assessment, the precariousness threshold, which is 80 per cent of the median equivalent income, will now be decisive for this. This economic parameter is calculated by the statistical offices in accordance with OECD guidelines on the basis of household data from the microcensus and published on the internet. Due to the internal salary system, this violation already affects all salary groups in salary scale A in the federal state of Berlin. However, in other federal states and in the federal government, too, several salary groups have been below the minimum salary in the past and are currently still below it.

In addition, the legislator has severely decoupled civil servant salaries from the development of collectively agreed wages and consumer prices. The underfunding is also not justified by advantages in terms of pensions or cover in the event of illness or other circumstances of employment in the public sector. Finally, the mere reference to a tight budget situation cannot justify the infringements of the minimum salary and the updating of salaries. For this, the savings volumes would have to be distributed across all areas of society by means of a „coherent and comprehensive budget consolidation concept“. Civil servants should not have to contribute more to budget consolidation than other people.

More effective legal protection

By further developing the standards for reviewing civil servants' salaries, the BVerfG wants to help make it easier to review salaries in future. It wants to ensure effective, i.e. timely, legal protection. If civil servants are not allowed to strike, they should have an effective alternative means of defending their interests and ensuring an adequate livelihood.

However, the employers would only have to grant back payments to civil servants who have lodged objections, complaints and other legal remedies against the amount of their salary.