Bridge day tips almost always assume a 5-day week. If you work part-time or have a four-day week, the maths is different: you have fewer vacation days, lose some holidays to days off and get new bridges instead. Here is how to plan correctly. As of October 2026.
Converting your leave entitlement
The statutory minimum leave in Germany is 24 Werktage (§ 3(1) Federal Leave Act, BUrlG), based on a six-day week from Monday to Saturday. If you work fewer days, you get correspondingly fewer vacation days but the same number of weeks of leave. The Federal Labour Court calculates it like this:
30 vacation days on a 5-day week become 30 × 4 ÷ 5 = 24 vacation days on four working days, and 18 on three days. The statutory minimum is 20 days (5-day week), 16 days (4-day week) and 12 days (3-day week). In every case that is at least four weeks of rest. Part-time employees may not be treated worse than full-time employees (§ 4(1) Part-Time and Fixed-Term Employment Act, TzBfG). The holiday entitlement calculator works out your entitlement.
Holidays on days off: no replacement
On a public holiday, only the working time that is lost because of the holiday is paid (§ 2(1) Continued Remuneration Act, EntgFG). If a holiday falls on a day you do not work anyway, you get nothing out of it, and there is no replacement day. Legally that is not a disadvantage: you also have fewer working days.
For bridge planning this means: what matters is not how many holidays your state has, but how many fall on your working days. Two examples for North Rhine-Westphalia in 2027:
| Working week | Working days 2027 | Holidays on working days | Holidays lost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon–Fri | 254 | 7 | – |
| Mon–Thu | 203 | 5 | New Year's Day and Good Friday (Fridays) |
| Tue–Fri | 205 | 4 | Easter Monday, Whit Monday, All Saints' Day (Mondays) |
New bridges in a four-day week
If Friday is always off, every Thursday holiday automatically becomes a long weekend: Ascension Day and Corpus Christi then give four days off without any leave. The bridge moves to the start of the week. Typical examples for 2027 in North Rhine-Westphalia with a Mon–Thu week:
- Easter: 3 vacation days from Tuesday to Thursday after Easter (30 March–1 April) give 10 days off from 26 March to 4 April.
- Whitsun: 3 vacation days from Tuesday to Thursday after Whit Monday (18–20 May) give 10 days off from 14 to 23 May.
- Ascension to Whitsun: 4 vacation days from 10 to 13 May join both holidays into 12 days off (6–17 May).
With 8 vacation days the calculator plans a total of 23 days off in two breaks for this week in 2027; on a 5-day week, 8 vacation days give 20 days off. If you work Tuesday to Friday, you have Monday off instead: then the Friday after Ascension is a bridge day again and even gives five days off (Thursday to Monday).
Using the calculator for part-time work
- In the bridge days calculator, tap exactly the days you work under "Your working days", or choose the four-day week Mon–Thu.
- Enter your converted vacation days, not the full-time figure.
- The calculator then only counts your working days as vacation days and only holidays on your working days as a gain.
The calculator cannot model changing working days, e.g. in shift work or rotating rosters. In that case, count month by month using your roster. The part-time calculator shows how working hours and pay change with part-time work.
Legal basis: §§ 3, 7 Federal Leave Act, § 2 Continued Remuneration Act, § 4 Part-Time and Fixed-Term Employment Act. As of October 2026.