Citizen Income Side Earnings Simulator

The most common misconception about Bürgergeld: many believe every euro earned is deducted one to one, so a side job never pays. That is not true. SGB II provides staggered allowances that keep part of your earnings exempt. The side earnings simulator makes this staggering visible and ends the guessing about whether the mini-job or the extra hour is even worth it.

The allowances work like this: the first 100 euros of your gross side earnings stay entirely exempt, that is the basic allowance. Of the portion between 100 and 520 euros you keep 20 percent, of the portion between 520 and 1,000 euros 30 percent, and of the portion between 1,000 and 1,200 euros another 10 percent. If you have minor children in the household, the last limit shifts to 1,500 euros. Everything above is fully credited against your Bürgergeld.

The simulator breaks your earnings into exactly these tiers and shows for each how much you keep and how much is credited. At the bottom you see your net additional earnings: the amount by which your total income actually rises if you take the side job. That is the figure that really counts - not the gross on the payslip.

The effective marginal burden is especially revealing. It tells you how much of each additional euro is taken away in the end. In the lower tiers it is low, above 1,200 or 1,500 euros it jumps to 100 percent - every further euro is then fully credited. Anyone who knows this can deliberately place their working hours in the zone where each hour pays off most.

A slider lets you play through different earnings levels without retyping everything. You see live how the kept share and the crediting shift, and a comparison chart places your total income with and without the side job side by side. That turns an abstract rule of law into a tangible decision aid.

The simulator replaces neither advice from the Jobcenter nor a decision. It calculates with the standard allowances and makes no statement about special cases like self-employment or particular deductible amounts. But it gives you the crucial orientation so you do not turn down a job that actually pays out of fear of the crediting. Everything runs in your browser, your numbers stay with you.