A job offer in Austria often comes with a surprise in the numbers: the salary is quoted as a monthly figure, but you will be paid fourteen times a year. Behind that custom is a labour system built around collective agreements rather than a single minimum wage. If you are working in Austria as an EU citizen, knowing the logic of that system helps you read your contract before you sign it.
How does working in Austria differ from other countries?
Three features stand out:
- No statutory minimum wage. Your minimum pay, your extra payments and often your weekly hours come from the Kollektivvertrag (collective agreement) of your sector. About 95% of employees are covered.
- Fourteen salaries. The 13th and 14th payments are not set by law but by the agreement or contract, and they are taxed at a reduced rate. Always ask whether a quoted salary is paid 12 or 14 times.
- Free access for EU citizens. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens need no permit and have the same rights as Austrians.
How do you read a contract for working in Austria?
Ask your employer which Kollektivvertrag applies. It must appear in the Dienstzettel, the written statement of conditions. The agreement sets your minimum salary by classification (Einstufung), your premiums and often a weekly duration shorter than the legal 40 hours, 38.5 hours for example. Check your classification: it decides your pay. Members of the Arbeiterkammer (AK, the chamber of labour) can have their contract checked for free.
The contract can be oral, but without delay after hiring the employer must give you a written document (on paper, or electronic if you choose) with at least: the names and addresses of both parties, start date (and end date if fixed term), notice, workplace, classification, job, base pay and its components, leave, hours, the applicable agreement, the social insurance fund and the severance fund (BV-Kasse), the trial period and planned training. Changes must be notified in writing at the latest on the day they apply.
A contract in German with a classification table is the kind of document where people sign first and wonder later. Moovy can explain the terms in plain English and tell you what to ask. It does not replace the AK or a lawyer, and it cannot negotiate for you.
What are your rights when working in Austria on hours and leave?
- Trial period: it must be agreed, lasts at most one month (three for apprenticeships) and either party can end the contract at any moment without reason or notice.
- Hours: normal legal duration is 8 hours a day and 40 a week. Above the limit of your agreement, you have Mehrstunden (additional hours); above the legal limit, Überstunden (overtime). The absolute ceiling is 12 hours a day and 60 a week, and 48 hours on average over 17 weeks.
- Leave: 25 working days a year in a five-day week (30 working days in a six-day week), so five weeks. After 25 years with the same employer, six weeks.
- Social insurance: your employer registers you and you are insured from the first day. See health insurance in Austria and tax number and e-card in Austria.
- Severance scheme (Abfertigung neu): for contracts started after 31 December 2002, your employer pays 1.53% of gross pay into a fund from the second month. The capital is yours; you can ask for payout after at least three years of contributions if the contract ends other than by your resignation or your serious fault.
What are the notice periods?
For you, one month to the end of a month; a contract or agreement can extend it up to six months, and then the employer must respect at least as much. For the employer: six weeks in the first two years, two months from the third year, three from the sixth, four from the sixteenth, five from the twenty-sixth. Since 1 October 2021, these periods also apply to manual workers (Arbeiter). The exception that allowed seasonal-sector agreements to set shorter periods was removed from 1 July 2025; clauses adopted between 2018 and 30 June 2025 stay temporarily applicable, but no notice there can be below one week.
Notice runs to an end date (Kündigungstermin), often the end of a month or quarter depending on the agreement, not from the day of the letter.
How do you find a job and get your qualifications recognised?
The public portals are the AMS (Arbeitsmarktservice, ams.at) and EURES, the European network. For qualifications:
- Regulated profession (doctor, nurse, health professions, kindergarten teacher, teacher): with a diploma from the EU, EEA or Switzerland, apply for recognition under Directive 2005/36/EC to the competent authority; berufsanerkennung.at brings the procedures together.
- Non-regulated profession: no mandatory recognition. You can have your university degree assessed by ENIC NARIC AUSTRIA online for €150 for one or two degrees (€50 for each extra), payable by card. It classifies the diploma but creates no right.
- Free help: advice points for foreign qualifications in Vienna, Linz, Graz and Innsbruck, with sessions in other provinces.
What if you lose your job?
Register with the AMS at the latest on the first day of unemployment, preferably online via MeinAMS (ID Austria or an activation code by post). The date you file counts. The Arbeitslosengeld (unemployment benefit) requires, for a first claim, 52 weeks of insured work in the last 24 months (28 weeks in the last 12 for a later claim), with pay above €551.10 a month in 2026. It is about 55% of net daily income, based on gross pay capped at €6,825 a month, for 20 weeks at least (up to 30, 39 or 52 weeks with longer work history and age). There is a four-week waiting period if you resign or are dismissed for serious misconduct.
If you worked in another EU country just before, ask its unemployment body for a U1 form so that your periods count in Austria. With a U2 from your home country, you can keep that country's benefit while seeking work in Austria, for at least three months, if you registered at least four weeks before leaving and register with the AMS within seven days.
What about telework from another country?
If you work for an Austrian employer while living elsewhere, you pay social security in your country of residence in principle when you work at least 25% of your time there. An EU framework agreement in force since 1 July 2023 allows you to stay insured in Austria if telework in your country stays below 50%, on joint request with your employer, if both countries signed. Tax follows the tax treaty between the two countries; ask the tax office or a tax adviser about your case.
What changes for British and Swiss workers?
Swiss citizens have free access to the labour market. British citizens need a residence title that allows work, for example the red-white-red card, except for beneficiaries of the Withdrawal Agreement. See moving to Austria from the UK. Working for yourself follows different rules, so ask the authorities before you start.
What do the first weeks in a new job look like?
Ask for your Dienstzettel if you did not receive it. Check the classification, the stated base pay and whether the pay is for 12 or 14 months. Give your employer your ID, your bank details (see bank account in Austria) and, if you have no Austrian document, a photo for your e-card. Your employer registers you with the social insurance from day one.
Then read your first payslip with care. It shows gross pay, each social contribution, wage tax and your net pay. Compare it with what the contract promised. If something looks wrong, ask the payroll department before you ask anyone else; and if the answer does not satisfy you, the Arbeiterkammer can help its members.
What do people often get wrong about working in Austria?
- Signing without knowing the agreement. The Kollektivvertrag sets your minimum. Check your classification.
- Assuming the 13th month is a legal right. It almost always comes from the agreement, not the law.
- Counting the notice from the date of the letter. It runs to an end date.
- Resigning without a plan. The four-week waiting period delays the benefit.
- Keeping a side job alongside unemployment benefit. Since 1 January 2026, marginal employment together with the benefit is allowed only in a few cases, and any work must be declared to the AMS.
- Missing an AMS appointment. An unexcused missed appointment shifts your claim date and the first payment.
For how tax is withheld from your salary, see tax number in Austria; for the practical settling-in order, the guide to moving to Austria.