Abstract
The receipt of special payments and their amount varies greatly with individual and company characteristics as well as with the level of the hourly wage. There are large di~erences between women and men, between East and West Germany, and de-pending on company size and sector. Special payments are rare in the low-wage sector and among marginal employees and, those that exist are very low. Looking at the 10% of employees with the highest hourly wages, special payments are wide-spread and by far the highest, especially among West German men.