Counting PhD years for Tvöd salary in Germany I know about the calculation for the &quot;Entgeltgruppe&quot; and the following &quot;stufe&quot;. My question is: if someone had a contract for, let's say, 3 years then this person needs 2 more years (non paid) to finish the PhD, this 2 extra years can be counted as working experience for the &quot;stufe&quot; calculation?
Probably not. &quot;Work experience&quot; assumes that the person is employed on a position relevant for the position that the &quot;Stufe&quot; is calculated for. From my experience, there is basically no flexibility in bending the interpretation of the TV-L/TV-H (I assume you mean either of them, since they are the relevant &quot;Tarifverträge&quot; for scientific employees).