Unemployment insurance contributions are being raised to 2.95 percent for everyone — what changes on your payslip
Everyone in paid employment in Austria is going to pay more into unemployment insurance. Under the 2027/28 double budget, the unemployment insurance contribution will be lifted in stages until it reaches the standard rate of 2.95 percent for all employees. It is not a single jump: the increase is spread across a six-year transition, and for newly started employment relationships the contribution begins at one percent and climbs step by step to the full rate.
The people who will feel this are not those already paying the full rate. Until now, employees on low incomes have paid a reduced unemployment insurance contribution, or none at all, and it is that relief which is being wound down. In proportional terms the change therefore lands hardest on the smallest pay packets — part-time workers, people earning near the marginal-earnings threshold of 551.10 euros a month, and anyone whose hours swing from month to month. In practice it shows up as a slightly smaller net figure on the payslip, growing a little at each stage of the phase-in rather than arriving all at once.
The stated reason is that unemployment insurance has to be funded. Around 295,500 people were registered with the labour market service as unemployed or in training at the end of June, and the federal budget earmarks roughly 10.97 billion euros for the labour portfolio in 2027 and 10.69 billion in 2028 — money that pays for unemployment benefit, Notstandshilfe and labour market programmes, including those aimed at older workers. The social minister has publicly accepted that the measure is an additional burden on employees while defending it as necessary to secure the system's financing. The trade union side has criticised it sharply, arguing the cost is being loaded onto wages.
There is nothing to apply for. The change runs automatically through payroll, so no action is needed either to receive it or to avoid it. What is worth doing is comparing your payslip with the previous month once the first stage takes effect, and establishing which stage applies to you — that depends on your income and on whether your employment relationship is new or already running. If your earnings sit near the marginal-earnings threshold, or you hold more than one job, ask specifically how the phase-in treats your combined income, because that is the group whose contribution moves from little or nothing towards the full rate. Both the labour market service and the chamber of labour advise on contribution rates free of charge.