Berlin is introducing a training levy: companies without trainees should pay from 2028. Why startups in particular criticize the plans.
The Berlin House of Representatives passed the so-called training place levy on Thursday. It sounds complicated, but it means: If you don’t train, you have to pay.
From 2028, companies with at least ten employees will be asked to pay if their training rate is below the current national average of 4.6 percent. And: It is no longer enough to simply advertise positions – they also have to be filled.
Berlin wants to earn 75 million euros
The decision is no coincidence: it is part of the coalition agreement between the CDU and SPD. It says: If the Berlin economy does not create 2,000 additional training positions by the end of 2025 compared to 2023, the levy will apply.
That is exactly what is emerging. Last year only around 1,300 new places were created.
The money will flow into a fund that, according to the Senate, could raise around 75 million euros per year. The idea: Companies that miss the quota pay in – and use it to finance companies that employ an above-average number of trainees. “Solidarity compensation,” is what SPD Labor Senator Cansel Kiziltepe, who pushed the project forward, calls it.
An exit is built in: If Berlin creates more than 2,000 additional trainees for three years in a row, the law will automatically be abolished.
What does this mean for startups?
The economy is critical of the levy. Alexander Schirp, managing director of the Berlin-Brandenburg business associations (UVB), calls the law “superfluous” and warns of growing bureaucracy through quotas, reports and additional requirements.
The startup scene is also directly affected. Bitkom boss Bernhard Rohleder speaks of a “disservice” to the Berlin location. The levy particularly affects startups and scaleups from the digital economy.
Many of them simply do not provide traditional training – not out of unwillingness, but because of their structure: small teams and mostly academic roles. “At the same time, these companies are key growth drivers and face fierce international competition,” says Rohleder.
Christoph Stresing, managing director of the startup association, is even clearer: the new rule is “anti-business policy”. Berlin is thus weakening itself in the competition for the best founders.
