In this state, law students get the most money

Law students receive maintenance allowance during their traineeship. imageBROKER/Unai Huizi/Getty Images

During their traineeship, aspiring lawyers receive a maintenance allowance for basic financial security.

The amount of support varies depending on the federal state and can be supplemented by capital formation benefits or family allowances.

In Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Thuringia and Saxony, trainees can be hired as civil servants upon revocation and are then exempt from unemployment insurance.

Studying law is intensive and time-consuming. To ensure that the aspiring lawyers have at least basic financial security, maintenance allowances are available during the traineeship. The monthly support is not a regular salary, but is intended to cover living costs during the two-year traineeship.

The amount of maintenance allowance varies depending on the federal state. In addition, in some federal states there are capital formation benefits or family allowances if the relevant requirements are met.

This is how much money law students receive during their traineeship

In most federal states, legal trainees are in a public law training relationship, which means they are obliged to pay contributions to unemployment and health insurance. However, trainees can also earn additional income. The boundaries for this also differ from state to state.

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In the federal states of Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Thuringia and Saxony, trainees can also be hired as civil servants on revocation, which means they are exempt from unemployment insurance. In these federal states, trainees are civil servants for the duration of their legal preparatory service – and then cease to be civil servants if they do not go into civil service. The lawyers don’t have to worry about additional payments.

We will show you the current status of maintenance allowance in the legal preparation service for single trainees without children in the respective federal states.

Federal StateGross maintenance allowance Baden-Württemberg1402.51 eurosBavaria1502.08 eurosBerlin1537.52 eurosBrandenburg 1523,26 EuroBremen1383.61 eurosHamburg 1243.07 euros (from November 1443.07 euros and from February 2025 1583.07 euros)Hesse1682.65 euros*Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Civil servant upon revocation: 1552.50 euros; public law: 1345 eurosLower Saxony 1276.63 eurosNorth Rhine-Westphalia 1375.17 eurosRhineland-Palatinate 1,464.86 euros (from November 1,564.86 euros)Saarland1303.97 eurosSaxony 1645.10 euros*Saxony-Anhalt 1361.75 eurosSchleswig-Holstein1444.79 euros (from November 1544.79 euros, from February 2025 1594.79 euros)Thuringia 1589.97 euros*