Social security

Austrian social insurance is not a contract you enter but a status that attaches by law. Take up employment, and insurance for pension, health, unemployment and workplace accidents begins with the job itself — the obligation is triggered as soon as monthly earnings exceed a small statutory minimum, which any real salary does — and the employer must register you with the health insurance carrier before your first day of work. Earn income from self-employment, and the parallel scheme for the self-employed attaches instead. Neither wealth nor existing private cover changes this — private insurance in Austria supplements the public system and never replaces it.

For employees, contributions are a percentage of gross pay, split between employee and employer and handled entirely through payroll. The combined burden is about 39% of gross salary up to the cap, divided as follows.

Rates as of 2026; exact figures vary slightly by employee category and by province — in Vienna the housing subsidy levy rose to 1.5% on 1 January 2026 (0.75% each side), taking the employee share to about 18.32% and the employer share to about 21.23%. The employee share is withheld from gross pay alongside wage tax, as described under employment and executives; the employer share comes on top of gross. In exchange, cover is comprehensive: health care with the e-card at practically no point-of-service cost, pension accrual, unemployment benefit and occupational accident insurance.

The self-employed — sole traders, freelancers, partners in partnerships and, importantly, GmbH managing directors with significant shareholdings — are insured with the SVS, the social insurance institution for the self-employed. The contribution logic mirrors the employee scheme but on profits rather than salary: 18.5% pension insurance and 6.8% health insurance, plus a 1.53% contribution to the self-employed provision fund and a fixed accident premium of EUR 12.95 per month (2026). The maximum base is EUR 8,085 per month (2026) — twelve times that is the same EUR 97,020 annual ceiling that applies to employees.

Two practical points catch newcomers. First, contributions are initially assessed provisionally on older income figures and trued up once the tax assessment for the year exists, so a successful first Austrian year produces a back-payment later — plan liquidity for it. Second, the SVS covers health and pension but not unemployment insurance, which is optional for the self-employed. Whether a director is an employee or SVS-insured depends chiefly on shareholding and control; the distinction is drawn on the employment and executives page, and the corporate side on setting up a company.

One person's insurance can carry the household. A non-working spouse or registered partner and children can be co-insured for health care with the working family member — children without charge, while a co-insured partner triggers an additional contribution of 3.4% of the insured person's income, waived where the partner is raising children or has done so for at least four years, among other exceptions. Everyone insured receives the e-card and the same access to the public system.

For most relocating families the sensible architecture is public foundation, private roof: mandatory cover for the substance, and supplementary private insurance for private hospitals, class accommodation and free choice of doctor. What the private layer costs, which Viennese private hospitals matter and how the voluntary self-insurance route works for residents without gainful activity is covered under healthcare in Austria.