Overview
- The Senat tabled a draft law on Wednesday that would adopt the Länder public-service tariff for Hamburg civil servants and apply staged raises retroactive to April 1, 2026.
- The pay steps in the draft are 2.8% retroactive to April 1, 2026, a further 2% in March 2027, and 1% on January 1, 2028.
- Official estimates put immediate costs for 2026 at about €397 million including provisions, an annual budget impact above €560 million, and a combined package effect over €630 million when the Länder tariff is included.
- The draft also includes Bundesverfassungsgericht-driven one-off backpayments for 2011, 2012 and 2025 of roughly €80 million, and covers roughly 47,000 active civil servants plus about 38,000 pensioners.
- Unions and professional associations call the proposal insufficient, complain pensioners are treated unequally, point to more than 8,000 pending pay lawsuits, and the bill will go through a participation phase in June–July with a Senat re-examination planned for August before it reaches the Bürgerschaft.