Article 33 of the Basic Law requires that the law of the public service take account of the traditional principles of the professional civil service. The Federal Constitutional Court counts the Alimentationsprinzip among them. The state must give civil servants, judges and their families an appropriate living, according to their rank and the responsibility of their office. The court checks this with figures. It compares the development of civil service pay with collectively agreed wages in the public service, with the nominal wage index and with consumer prices. On 5 May 2015, it found that the pay of judges in Saxony-Anhalt for 2008 to 2010 was unconstitutional. In a decision published in November 2025, it found that about 95 percent of the Berlin pay grades it examined, for the years 2008 to 2020, were unconstitutional. It also set a new minimum. Pay must not fall below 80 percent of median equivalized income. Berlin must pass a new law by 31 March 2027.