Over-payment (Überzahlung)

Definition

The Überzahlung (over-payment) is the part of the salary you are actually paid (Ist-Gehalt) that lies above the KV minimum salary of your group and step. It is allowed because an employment contract may deviate from the collective agreement in your favour (§ 3 ArbVG). It matters at every KV raise: whether your salary rises too depends on what the agreement provides for salaries above the minimum.

Minimum raise or actual raise

• Minimum raise only: the salary table rises, not your salary. If you are above it, you get no raise unless your contract provides one. Your salary stays the same and the over-payment shrinks; it only has to rise enough not to fall below the new minimum.
• Actual raise (Ist-Erhöhung): it applies to the salary really paid, even above the minimum. The over-payment then rises with it. It can be built differently: in the 2026 IT-KV the total of a company's monthly base salaries rises by a fixed percentage, and the employer distributes the raise among the individual employees.
• Over-payment kept in euros: some agreements protect the over-payment as a fixed amount. In the 2026 retail agreement for salaried employees, the over-payments existing on 31 Dec 2025 were kept in euros (to the cent) under the deal. Salaries therefore rose by the same euro amount as the minimum of their step.
• Higher grade: the KV also says what happens to an over-payment when you move to a higher group. In the IT-KV, moving from the regular or experienced step into a higher job family adds the difference between the two minimum salaries to your previous actual salary (Weiterqualifizierungsbonus), so the over-payment is in principle kept.

All-in contract

Under an all-in agreement the over-payment covers the overtime worked. Since 1 January 2016 the base pay for normal hours must be stated in the Dienstzettel or the employment contract; if it is missing, you are owed the base pay customary in the branch and locality (§ 2g AVRAG). The employer has to check whether the over-payment covers the overtime actually worked (Deckungsprüfung, based on the calendar-year average). Where it does not, the remaining overtime must be paid; you cannot validly waive that.

Further reading

Collective agreements overview, with the minimum and actual raise per branch and year.

See also

• KV minimum salary, the floor above which the over-payment starts.
• Collective agreement, favourability principle and the annual wage round.
• Overtime and premiums, how overtime premiums are taxed, all-in included.