Employment, freelance service contract or Werkvertrag?

The three contract types

• Employment contract (employee/worker): ASVG-liable, full payroll levies, 13th/14th salary, holiday and continued pay. The most expensive but most secure route.
• Free service contract: also ASVG-insured, but without the housing levy and without a statutory 13th/14th. Somewhat cheaper, less commitment.
• Werkvertrag: genuine self-employment, GSVG-insured. The client pays no payroll levies, only the fee.

Cost comparison: € 3.000 gross/month (Vienna, 2026)

Same monthly figure (gross or fee), different payroll levies. Employee and worker compute identically. The Werkvertrag shows only the fee, the contractor bears their own social insurance.

Which contract type when?

The choice follows the actual work, not the price. Anyone working under instruction, with fixed hours and integrated into the business is an employee, regardless of what the contract says. A Werkvertrag for ongoing, dependent work is bogus self-employment and gets reclassified retroactively at high cost. The free service contract is the middle ground for more independent, project-based work.

Further employment forms

This comparison covers the three base types. Special forms with their own contribution rules can be calculated too: the apprentice (reduced health insurance, no chamber levy), the marginal employment (insurance-free for the employee, levies only on the employer side) and the civil servant (B-KUVG instead of ASVG). New self-employed and one-person firms follow in their own calculator.