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Worked example
Real numbers from this tool, line by line.
Six people on a direct German contract at 2,100 euros gross a month put a Berlin payroll 15,825.13 euros under water - 13,122 euros of back pay plus 2,703.13 euros of employer contributions - and the payroll manager running it has done nothing wrong except not notice that the floor moved.
Germany's statutory minimum wage went from 12.82 euros an hour in 2025 to 13.90 euros an hour on 2026-01-01. That is a monthly floor of 2,343 EUR per month. A salary of 2,100 euros gross was legal in December and is 243 euros short in January, 2,916 euros short over a full year. Nine months in, across six people, that is 13,122 euros of back pay you already owe. Apply a 20.6 percent employer contribution rate and another 2,703.13 euros is owed on top, for a total exposure of 15,825.13 EUR.
Nobody sends a reminder, and the next step is already fixed: 14.60 euros an hour on 2027-01-01. From 2026-09-19 that is 104 days away.
The reason this is a browser extension and not a spreadsheet
Because the number you need is not in your spreadsheet - it is the current statutory floor, and it changes under you once a year, in five different countries on five different schedules. This extension carries the 2026 monthly floors: Germany 2,343 EUR per month, Ireland 2,391, Netherlands 2,295, France 1,801, Poland 1,139. Source: Eurostat minimum wage statistics, data extracted January 2026, read on 2026-09-19.
You pick the country, type the gross you actually pay, the headcount on that rate, the months already run at that rate and your own employer contribution rate, and pick the date you are checking. Six inputs. It returns six outputs: shortfall per employee per month, shortfall per employee per year, back pay owed so far, employer contributions on that back pay, total exposure, and days to the next 1 January uprating.
The same tool, three payrolls
Fourteen people in Poland at 1,050 euros against a 1,139 floor is 89 euros each a month, 11,214 euros of back pay over nine months, 13,510.63 euros of total exposure at a 20.48 percent contribution rate. Four people in Ireland at 2,250 against a 2,391 floor is 141 euros each, 5,076 euros of back pay, 5,641.97 euros total at 11.15 percent. Same six inputs, genuinely different answers, because the floor is genuinely different.
Why the free chatbot answer is the expensive one
Ask an assistant what Germany's minimum wage is and there is a good chance you get 12.82 euros an hour, the 2025 rate, because the 13.90 rate took effect on 2026-01-01 and training data lags. That is the single most expensive wrong number in this whole calculation: it makes a 243-euro monthly gap look like zero. And even with the right rate, a chat answer does not multiply your headcount by your months, and does not add the employer contributions owed on the back pay.
Under the Mindestlohngesetz the fine ceiling for paying below the minimum wage is 500,000 euros. The back pay is owed on top of the ceiling, not instead of it. A Steuerberater bills 30 to 70 euros per half hour under StBVV section 13, so one sanity check across a five-country payroll costs more than this extension does once.
What is free
All of it. The six outputs are always shown - no key, no limit, no watermark, no locked answer. The full version, 60 dollars once, adds a .csv export so the run leaves the popup, and a browser alarm before the next 1 January uprating so the next rate change reaches you in time. One licence key per person or team seat. Everything is computed in the page; no payroll figure leaves your browser.
Questions people ask
What does this extension actually do?
It compares the gross monthly pay you actually run against the 2026 statutory minimum wage floor for the country you pick, then returns six outputs: shortfall per employee per month, shortfall per employee per year, back pay owed so far, employer contributions on that back pay, total exposure, and days to the next 1 January uprating.
Who is it for?
Payroll and people-ops managers at small companies that employ staff on direct local contracts in Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, France or Poland, with no employer-of-record in between. If you run gross salaries yourself in more than one EU country, the floor moves under you every 1 January and nobody sends a reminder.
Why will a free chatbot not answer this?
Free chatbots and older blog posts still quote the 2025 German floor of 12.82 euros an hour, because the 13.90 rate only took effect on 2026-01-01 and training data lags behind. A search result also will not multiply your headcount and your months by the gap, or add the employer contributions owed on the back pay.
What is free and what needs the key?
Free covers the whole calculation with no key: you set six inputs - country, gross you actually pay, employees on that rate, months already paid at that rate, your employer contribution rate, and the date you are checking - and read all six outputs. The full version at 60 dollars adds a .csv export and an uprating alarm.
What would this cost without the extension?
A Steuerberater in Germany bills 30 to 70 euros per half hour under StBVV section 13, so a single sanity check across a five-country payroll costs more than this extension does once. The MiLoG fine ceiling for paying below the minimum wage is 500,000 euros, and the back pay is still owed on top of it.
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