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Germany: an eight-hour day that can be ten, and 20 statutory days almost nobody gets

The Arbeitszeitgesetz regulates the day, not the week. Eight hours is the norm, extendable to ten provided the average stays at eight across six months, so the 40-hour week here is simply five of those days rather than a weekly limit in its own right. A ten-hour day is lawful; six months of them are not.

German law sets no overtime premium. A supplement of about 25% is customary but comes from a collective agreement or your contract, not from the Arbeitszeitgesetz. Where no Tarifvertrag covers you, overtime may be paid at the plain rate, or, in many salaried contracts, deemed mit dem Gehalt abgegolten, covered by the salary, which the courts allow within limits for higher earners. If that clause is in your contract, the honest hourly rate is the one you get by typing your real hours into the schedule field.

The leave number needs the same care. Section 3 of the Bundesurlaubsgesetz grants 24 working days, but it counts a six-day week, so the statutory minimum on a normal five-day week is 20 days. Almost no full-time German contract actually stops there: 25 to 30 days is the usual collectively agreed entitlement, and setting the calculator to your own figure moves the rate per hour worked by several per cent.

Public holidays are a matter for each Land. Nine fall everywhere in the country and each Land adds its own on top, so the count runs from ten to thirteen. Bavaria has the most, Berlin and the northern city states the fewest, so two identical salaries in different states are not quite worth the same per hour worked.

For how the calculation works, the formula behind it and what it leaves out, see the full guide.

Data sources

  • German working time and leave entitlement

    Effective 1994-07-01 onward · retrieved 2026-08-30

    Public holidays are set by each Land and range from nine to thirteen days.

    How we checked these figures

    BUrlG section 3: 24 working days on a six-day week, which is 20 days on a five-day week.

    Current

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