How does the employee's social security work in Austria?

Do you work in Austria? Then you are covered by compulsory social insurance, which provides Austrian social protection.

Employee and social insurance (Sozialversicherung)

You are subject to Austrian social security for the duration of your Austrian employment, which means that you are automatically socially insured in Austria. Your employer signs you up for social security when you start your employment. You will then be assigned a social security number or Sozialversicherungsnummer. This number is important for recording your total period of insurance and earnings. You will also receive an Austrian e-card or insurance card, which will serve as a social security identification card. You can use it to access Austrian social security services, such as medical treatment.

Austrian social insurance includes:

• Health insurance - Krankenversicherung,
• accident insurance - Unfallversicherung,
• pension insurance - Pensionsversicherung,
• unemployment insurance - Arbeitslosenversicherung.

Health insurance (Krankenversicherung)

With Austrian health insurance you have access to Austrian healthcare. Once you have registered with the social security system, you will receive a copy of the "Certificate of Registration in the Health Insurance Fund" from your employer. When you receive treatment in Austria, you must present the aforementioned e-card to your doctor.

Health insurance includes:

• medical care (also dentists),
• sickness care,
• sickness insurance benefits.

Accident insurance (Unfallversicherung)

Contributions to accident insurance cover damage to health as a result of an accident at work, an occupational disease and also their consequences. This is one type of insurance contribution which is paid only by the employer, or the accident insurance contribution is not deducted from the wages.

Pension insurance (Pensionsversicherung)

With pension contributions, you can receive an Austrian pension after working in Austria for one year. Another condition for entitlement to an Austrian pension is that you have worked 180 months or 15 years in the EU. Otherwise, if you have worked less than one year, you are not entitled to an Austrian pension. However, you will not lose any insurance periods, which will be added to the insurance period in your home country or in the country where you apply for the pension.

Read also:

Everything about working in Austria

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Unemployment insurance (Arbeitslosenversicherung)

Unemployment insurance and the related contributions play an important role in determining your unemployment benefit after leaving employment.

Your employer pays the social security contributions for you. The basis for determining the amount of contributions is the assessment base. This means that the employer determines the assessment base and the amount of contributions. It then reports them to the competent authority by the 15th of the following month via a monthly statement. Part of the contributions are paid by the employee and part by the employer.

The amount of the employee's and employer's contributions in 2024

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