Short Answer
The Federal Employment Agency directly compensates your lost wages at a reduced rate of sixty to sixty-seven percent for hours canceled due to corporate crises.
Your employer remains fully liable for paying one hundred percent of your regular hourly rate exclusively for the actual time you work.
What Most Expats Don't Realize
You assumed your company's transition into short-time work meant your fixed monthly budget was completely safe due to your contract terms. When your monthly statement arrived, your net deposit had plummeted by hundreds of Euros because your firm lacked an internal collective union agreement to supplement the government's low baseline allowance. You faced an immediate cash-flow crisis, losing €2,100 in expected revenue over a quarter and falling into arrears on your private loan obligations.
What To Do
- Ask your internal Works Council (Betriebsrat) for a physical copy of the corporate short-time work agreement (Betriebsvereinbarung).
- Check the documentation to see if a voluntary corporate top-up clause (Zuschuss zum Kurzarbeitergeld) bridges the salary gap.
- "Wie hoch ist der prozentuale Nettoentgeltausfall während der Kurzarbeit für meine Gehaltsstufe?" (How high is the percentage net income loss during short-time work for my salary tier?) — email this query to accounting to adjust your personal budget.
The Truth
Kurzarbeit is Germany’s secret weapon for economic crises. Instead of firing everyone like in the US, the state pays the salary so the company can keep its skilled staff ready for when the economy recovers.