Every year, the catchy Christmas carol has barely faded from our memories before a new chapter called 2025 is upon us. With the start of the new year, we take a look at the most important labour law changes in HR that you should keep an eye on. This much can be revealed: From relief in digitalisation to more money for mini-jobbers, there’s a lot to consider.
According to a recent Gartner study, your current focus is on further developing your HR managers, strategically aligning your workforce – i.e. your overall work performance – and further integrating technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) into your everyday work. Can you confirm this? In addition to all these strategic tasks, you may still be busy familiarising yourself with the operational changes that the new year has brought and continues to bring.
Seven important labour law changes
Legen wir genau darauf den Fokus – schließlich haben Sie hier keine Wahl, sondern müssen in vielen Bereichen arbeitsrechtlichen Verpflichtungen nachkommen. Das nächste Meeting ruft, Sie haben wenig Zeit? Hier kommt auf einen Blick, was Sie 2025 als HR-Verantwortliche in Deutschland beachten müssen:
1. digital employment contract: An important, digital step for many employers – since 1 January 2025, you have been allowed to conclude employment contracts electronically. By email, digital signature or scanned signature – everything digital is permitted. Exceptions apply to certain sectors.
2. verification law in text form: The elimination of the written form requirement also falls under the area of bureaucratic relief. In future, terms and conditions of employment can simply be sent by email. Important: The contract must be digitally retrievable.
3. minimum wage increases to 12.82 euros: Since January 2025, the minimum wage has been 12.82 euros. The mini-job limit will also increase accordingly, with the new maximum being 556 euros.
4. digital job references: Digitisation, the third – anyone who wants to can now issue employment references electronically and provide them with a qualified signature. The prerequisite is the consent of your employees.
5. parental leave made easier: From May 2025, applications for parental leave or care leave can be submitted in text form. This means that an email will also be sufficient in future.
6. fixed-term contracts can be concluded digitally: In certain cases, you will be able to conclude fixed-term employment contracts digitally in future. Exception: For many other fixed-term contracts, the written form is still required.
7. pay transparency is coming: Although not mandatory until 2026, it is already a to-do for many HR departments – companies must develop gender-independent and objective pay criteria.
Innovations are one thing, your resulting obligations and changes to be observed are another. We therefore take a closer look at what you should pay attention to with regard to the individual points.
More digitalisation, less bureaucracy: digital employment contracts, references and fixed-term contracts
For most modern companies, these innovations should be balm on the obligatory, analogue soul: many processes relating to employee management can also be solved digitally in future. This is ‘due’ to the Bureaucracy Relief Act IV, which is intended to ‘relieve citizens, businesses and the administration of bureaucracy’.
And it does: after all, the changes save processing costs and paper. This is an opportunity, especially for the 25 per cent of companies that, according to Bitkom, still work predominantly on paper.
What this means for you: Check your clauses in current employment contracts. Where standardised sentences used to say ‘written form’, they should now say ‘text form’. This includes digital means – such as electronic signatures. However, these regulations do not apply to the following sectors – the risk of undeclared work is too high here:
- Catering & accommodation industry
- Construction industry
- Passenger transport industry
- Forwarding, transport & logistics industry
- Prostitution industry
- Forestry trade
- Building cleaning trade
- Show business
- Companies involved in setting up and dismantling trade fairs and exhibitions
- Meat industry
- Security & safety industry
By the way: Even if many things will be converted to digital form in 2025, the written form that has been used for decades is still required for notices of termination and cancellation agreements.
More money for mini-jobbers
Since January, mini-jobbers can have a little more money in their account at the end of the month – if they earn minimum wage, you as a company must even adjust their salary accordingly. From now on, a minimum wage of 12.82 euros per hour applies. At the same time, the mini-job limit has been adjusted from 538 to 556 euros.
Important for you: Check how much your mini-job employees currently earn. Overtime, public holiday bonuses or seasonal peaks can quickly lead to a mini-job suddenly becoming an employment relationship subject to social security contributions – and that can be expensive.
Less paper thanks to the law on proof in text form
Since January 2025, you have been allowed to submit working conditions in text form – a simple PDF by email is sufficient, so an analogue printout is no longer necessary. However, it is important that the information can be accessed by employees at any time.
Thinking about tomorrow today when it comes to pay transparency
Even though the obligation to provide pay transparency will not come into force until 2026, you should put this important change on your to-do list now. From next year, you as a company will have to develop and document gender-independent and objective pay criteria – this should ensure that salaries are transparent and non-discriminatory.
Our tip: It’s best to start reviewing your salary structures now – or at least soon:
- Get an overview of the salary structures.
- Analyse whether the same activities are paid the same.
- Define clear criteria for pay increases or grading.
Relief for parents
From May this year, applying for parental leave or carer’s leave will be less complicated: instead of written applications, a simple email or other digital format in text form will be sufficient in future.
It is best to check whether your internal processes for parental leave applications are already digitalised. Clear guidelines for employees – such as templates or central contact persons – help to maintain an overview. In the end, it’s not just the parents who benefit, but you too. After all, the same applies here: less paperwork, more flexibility.
Conclusion: lots of changes, lots of trends, lots of AI
Take a deep breath – there’s a lot coming your way. The direction seems clear: less paperwork, more digitalisation, but also new (emerging) operational issues such as pay transparency and the right approach to AI. Finally, the EU AI Act is also still in the draw of innovations this year.
In addition to the rather clear and dry labour law innovations, the latter in particular is a development that should make you sit up and take notice. After all, the digital world continues to turn and AI will become an increasingly important part of everyday HR life in the coming years – be it for analysing salary structures, supporting recruitment or improving work-life balance through data-based models.
2025 will therefore not only be ‘another year full of changes’, but also potentially one that can set the course for the future for many companies.
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