Bundestag freezes MPs’ pay, but several German state parliaments raise allowances as planned
Germany’s lower house of parliament is forgoing a scheduled €497 monthly raise, while many Landtage are proceeding with automatic increases of several hundred euros.
The Bundestag will skip a planned 1 July increase that would have lifted the basic monthly allowance for its 630 members from roughly €11,833 to about €12,330. The Union and SPD factions intend to suspend the automatic wage-index mechanism just once as a signal of restraint in tight fiscal times, and all parliamentary groups support the one-off freeze.
Landtage stick to schedule
By contrast, several states are applying their index models on time:
- Bavaria: 4.1 % rise to €10,595.07, plus a €4,415.02 expense allowance.
- Hesse: 4.3 % rise to €10,362, with a €1,544 expense allowance.
- Baden‑Württemberg: the Landtag voted 108–32 to keep the index model; the basic allowance was last set at €9,322.
- North Rhine‑Westphalia: currently €11,463.66, no cancellation planned.
- Saxony‑Anhalt: planned increase from €8,736.66 to €9,138.
- Saarland: retroactive to April, €7,173 instead of €6,977, with further steps until 2028.
- Rhineland‑Palatinate: €8,571 a month since the start of 2026 (up 3.1 %), a new arrangement is due after the summer break.
- Brandenburg: the opposition BSW faction has proposed a waiver; the SPD‑CDU coalition is still examining the idea and a freeze like the Bundestag’s is considered possible.
- Bavaria
- 10595.07 €/month
- Hesse
- 10362 €/month
- Baden‑Württemberg
- 9322 €/month
- North Rhine‑Westphalia
- 11463.66 €/month
- Saxony‑Anhalt
- 9138 €/month
- Saarland
- 7173 €/month
- Rhineland‑Palatinate
- 8571 €/month
Arguments around the mechanism
Those who want to keep the automatic adjustment stress transparency. A spokesperson for the CDU parliamentary group in North Rhine‑Westphalia said the remuneration reflects ordinary people’s lives and is adjusted according to clear, comprehensible rules.
The remuneration reflects ordinary people’s lives and is adjusted according to transparent, comprehensible rules.
In Hesse the SPD parliamentary group offered a similar rationale. Meanwhile, the AfD and Die Linke in the Bundestag want to abandon the annual link to average wages altogether, going beyond the one‑off suspension supported by all other parties.
