TV-H Explained
The Tarifvertrag für den öffentlichen Dienst des Landes Hessen (TV-H) sets pay for tariff employees of the state of Hesse, from state administration to universities to social and educational services.
The TV-H calculator above turns your Entgeltgruppe, stage and working time into a monthly basic gross figure, an estimated annual special payment and, for tariff employees, an estimated net figure for a regular month.
This guide explains why Hesse has its own collective agreement, how the pay table is structured, how the Jahressonderzahlung is worked out, and how gross pay becomes net pay.
Why Hesse Has Its Own Collective Agreement
Until 2004, Hesse belonged to the Tarifgemeinschaft deutscher Länder (TdL) and was paid under the same agreement as the other 15 states. Hesse left the TdL in 2004 and has since negotiated its own collective agreement directly with ver.di and other unions, with the state itself as employer.
Since that split, TV-H and TV-L have developed independently: both follow the same basic principle of Entgeltgruppen, stages and a Jahressonderzahlung, but by now differ in table structure, amounts, percentages and the timing of raises.
TV-H's standard contractual weekly hours are 40 hours for most employees, somewhat more than TV-L's roughly 38 to 40 hours depending on state and Tarifgebiet. Special working-time provisions can apply: for certain shift-work staff, the pay table separately publishes its own hourly rates based on a 38.5-hour week. This calculator reflects only the regular 40-hour table.
Entgeltgruppen and the Table's Structure
TV-H's pay table runs from Entgeltgruppe 1 to 16, with the intermediate steps 9a and 9b between Entgeltgruppen 9 and 10. Unlike TV-L, TV-H therefore has an additional, sixteenth Entgeltgruppe for particularly demanding roles.
A genuine tariff quirk of TV-H concerns the experience stages themselves: instead of the six stages (1 to 6) usual under TVöD and TV-L, TV-H has seven stages (1a, 1b, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), with an extra intermediate step right at the start of a career.
As under TVöD and TV-L, the Entgeltgruppe follows from the actual role performed under the Entgeltordnung, not work experience or grade. The employer determines the exact classification from the actual job characteristics.
Stage Progression Under TV-H
Within an Entgeltgruppe, pay automatically progresses through the seven experience stages as relevant work experience accrues, with no separate application needed. New hires with no relevant experience are typically placed in stage 1a.
Relevant experience from a previous role is credited under certain conditions. The employer decides the exact stage placement for a new hire case by case. This calculator reflects the tabular amount for each stage; you choose your own stage in the calculator.
Social and Educational Services Under TV-H
Staff in social and educational services, for example early-years educators at state facilities, are covered by a separate table with S-Entgeltgruppen (Anlage 4a/4b to the HMdI-Rundschreiben), only introduced in 2025. Unlike the corresponding tables under TVöD and TV-L, it follows the same seven-stage structure (1a, 1b, 2 to 6) as the general TV-H table rather than a six-stage one.
A few S-Entgeltgruppen don't exist in this table, namely S1, S5, S6 and S10 - a pattern also found in the corresponding SuE tables under TVöD and TV-L. This calculator reflects the TV-H SuE table under its own selection on the Public Sector Pay overview page.
Worked Example: Entgeltgruppe 11
Someone in Entgeltgruppe 11, stage 3, earns 4,816.38 € gross per month full-time (40 hours/week) from 1 July 2026, compared with 4,676.10 € through June 2026.
For the full 2026 calendar year, this example works out to 59,844.71 € gross, since the calculator automatically accounts for the 1 July 2026 table change month by month rather than applying one table version to the whole year. This already includes an estimated Jahressonderzahlung (special payment) of 2,889.83 €, paid out with November's salary.
At tax class I, no church-tax membership and statutory health insurance (this calculator's default assumptions), that works out to roughly 3,035.83 € net in a regular month (October 2026, without the annual special payment). A different tax class, church-tax liability or private health insurance changes the actual figure.
The 2024 Pay Settlement
The previous TV-H agreement was settled on 15 March 2024 and included a tax-free inflation-compensation premium, a fixed base-amount raise from 1 February 2025, and a further percentage raise from 1 August 2025. On 27 March 2026, dbb beamtenbund und tarifunion, ver.di and the state of Hesse agreed a new settlement: a 3% raise (at least €110) from 1 July 2026, and a further 2.8% from 1 October 2027, around 5.8% combined over the agreement's term.
The table from 1 July 2026 reflects this settlement and can be selected. The table from 1 October 2027 is also on file and can be opened from the reference page. A month in 2027 shows that table's gross pay. It has no net figure, because the 2027 payroll-tax table is not in this calculator. Within a year that does have payroll tax, each month uses the table in force for that month.
From Gross Pay to Net Pay
Tariff employees of the state of Hesse are social-insurance contributors just like in any other employment relationship. Income tax, potentially the solidarity surcharge and church tax, plus employee contributions to pension, unemployment, health and care insurance, all come out of gross pay.
The TV-H calculator computes net pay using the same income-tax and social-insurance logic as this site's main salary calculator, starting from the tabular monthly gross figure of the month you select. The Jahressonderzahlung is taxed in the month it is paid, using the official method for one-off payments (the extra tax is the difference between the annual tax with and without it, and contributions apply only up to the pro-rata annual ceilings), so that month has its own net figure. Tax class, church-tax liability, children and health-insurance type can all be adjusted individually.
The Jahressonderzahlung Under TV-H
Staff still employed on 1 December are entitled under §20 TV-H to a Jahressonderzahlung, paid out with November's salary and calculated as a percentage of average gross pay across July, August and September.
Since the 2025 calendar year, a two-tier rate applies: 90% in Entgeltgruppen 1 to 8 and 60% in Entgeltgruppen 9a to 16. Social and educational services use the same two-tier rate, but with a different grouping: 90% for Entgeltgruppen S2 to S8b, but already 60% from Entgeltgruppe S9 - meaning it drops into the lower tier sooner than in the general table.
This calculator works out the Jahressonderzahlung automatically from your chosen Entgeltgruppe and includes it in the annual gross and net figures shown.
Supplementary Pension: the VBL in Hesse
Despite leaving the Tarifgemeinschaft deutscher Länder, the state of Hesse remains a member of the Versorgungsanstalt des Bundes und der Länder (VBL) under Abrechnungsverband West. Hesse's tariff employees pay an employee share of 1.81% of gross pay for this, the same as other VBL West members, out of already-taxed income.
This calculator offers an optional, off-by-default checkbox for that employee contribution. Not modelled: individual allowances for specific roles or hardships.
TV-H Compared to TV-L and TVöD
TV-H, TV-L and TVöD all follow the same basic principle of Entgeltgruppen, experience stages and a Jahressonderzahlung, but differ in table structure, amounts and percentages, since each agreement is negotiated independently. TV-H's seven-stage, rather than six-stage, structure stands out most.
Moving between employment at the state of Hesse (TV-H) and another state (TV-L) shouldn't be assumed to carry an identical pay figure at a similarly named Entgeltgruppe. Comparing this site's relevant calculators helps roughly estimate the financial effect of such a move.
Common Misconceptions About TV-H
A common mistake is comparing TV-H amounts directly against identically named TV-L Entgeltgruppen. Since the two agreements have been negotiated independently since 2004, identically named Entgeltgruppen can carry different amounts.
A second misconception concerns stage naming: because of the seven-stage structure, TVöD's or TV-L's stage 1 doesn't automatically correspond to TV-H's stage 1a. When comparing a payslip against a different table, check the exact stage label.
Third, TV-H's Entgeltgruppe S9 is sometimes confused with the rule under TVöD: in VKA's TVöD SuE table, S9 is a specific exception that gets the same, higher rate as S2 to S8b. TV-H has no such exception - S9 falls into the lower 60% tier here, the same as general Entgeltgruppe 9a. The two agreements treat the identically named Entgeltgruppe differently on this point.