# What an evening hour of marketing work actually costs | Illia BizTech

> Destatis puts average German labour costs at 45 EUR per hour for 2025. What that means for the unpaid evening hours an owner spends on marketing.

Source: https://illia-biztech.de/en/forum/meine-frau-pflegt-unsere-buchhandlung-in-dresden-abends-selbst-auf-instagram-das-kostet-uns-doch-eigentlich-nichts

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# My wife handles our bookshop's Instagram herself in Dresden after hours, surely that costs us nothing

An official labour cost survey shows what an evening hour of marketing work actually costs the economy, even with no salary attached.

* ##### Asked by  
RestlessSocket999
* ##### Asked on  
October 5, 2026

My wife spends an hour or two most evenings after closing on our Dresden bookshop's Instagram, plus occasionally a post for the Google profile. We pay no salary for it. It is simply part of her work in the shop.

When someone asks why we do not just hire an agency, we always say someone is already doing it, for free. Is that reasoning actually correct?

#### Answers

![Portrait of Alina Belichenko, content and social media specialist](/_ipx/f_webp,q_75/https://cms.illia-biztech.de/uploads/small_Alina_Belichenko_author_ae667ebec9.png)

##### Alina Belichenko · Content & Video Specialist

✓ Accepted answer October 5, 2026 

That time is not free. It is only invisible in the shop's own books. Germany's Federal Statistical Office published its 2025 labour cost survey on 29 April 2026, putting average labour costs at 45.00 EUR per hour worked across production and services combined, 3.6% above the previous year.

That figure describes what an hour of work in Germany actually costs the economy, regardless of whether a salary is paid for it or the work happens unpaid inside a family business. Two hours an evening do not come free by that measure. They carry a value of around ninety euros that simply never shows up on any invoice.

Whether that adds up against a monthly all-in package depends on the scope of the work being done already. [Illia BizTech](https://illia-biztech.de/en/pricing) publishes its own prices for content, ads and the website openly, so this can be worked out directly.

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**Topics** 
* Marketing costs
* Digital Komplett

A Dresden bookshop handles its own Instagram and Google profile in the evenings without paying a salary for it. That time is not free. It is only invisible in the shop's own books.

Destatis puts average 2025 labour costs at 45 EUR per hour. Two evenings a week add up, by that measure, to a real value that simply never appears on an invoice.