Holiday and Christmas bonuses do not lead to higher parental allowance

The parental allowance for employees is determined from the average of the current, usually monthly, wages in the assessment period (Section 2 Paragraph 1 Sentence 3 BEEG). Income that is treated as other income for income tax purposes is not taken into account when calculating parental allowance (Section 2c Paragraph 1 Sentence 2 BEEG). In a recent ruling dated June 29, 2017, the Federal Social Court has now decided that holiday or Christmas bonuses paid once during the assessment period do not lead to an increase in parental allowance.

Facts:
In the case on which this decision is based, the employee was entitled to 14 salaries per calendar year according to her employment contract. 12 salaries were paid monthly; In May an additional holiday bonus was paid and in November an additional Christmas bonus amounting to 1/14 of the agreed annual salary was paid. The defendant parental allowance office only calculated the parental allowance from the 12 monthly salaries paid and ignored the holiday and Christmas bonuses. This prompted the employee to file a lawsuit. While she lost in the first instance, the Berlin State Social Court ruled in her favor in the second instance.
Decision:
However, the Federal Social Court, as the appellate authority, has now ruled at the highest court that vacation or Christmas bonuses, which are only paid once during the assessment period, do not count as current employment income, but rather as income that cannot be taken into account for the assessment of parental allowance and is treated as other income for wage tax purposes. Holiday and Christmas bonuses cannot be allocated to current wages because they are to be viewed as parts of the overall annual wage. Even if (as in the underlying case) they are paid in the same amount as the regular monthly wage as the 13th and 14th monthly salary, they are not repeated or ongoing payments. Rather, it is an event-related payment once before the holiday season and once before Christmas.
To the BSG press release