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Holiday Entitlement Calculator 2026

How many days of annual leave are you owed? Work out the German statutory minimum, your contractual entitlement, the pro-rata twelfths when you join or leave, and the cash value of your remaining days.

100% freeNo data storedBased on BUrlG, SGB IX and JArbSchG

Important: a contract may only improve on the law, never undercut it

The statutory minimum leave in § 3 BUrlG cannot be waived (§ 13 BUrlG): 24 working days on a six-day week, which equals 20 working days on a five-day week. Employment and collective agreements may grant more leave, never less. This calculation is a non-binding estimate and does not replace legal advice.

Working pattern & contract

days
days

Period of employment

Additional entitlements & remaining leave

days
€
Your holiday entitlement this year

30

days of leave

Statutory minimum

20

Full annual entitlement

30

Already taken

8

Remaining leave

Remaining leave

22

days

Value of remaining leave

€3,655.30

Holiday pay per day: €166.15

Statutory, contractual and pro-rata compared

How your entitlement is built up

Statutory minimum24 working days ÷ 6 × 520 days
Contractual entitlement30 × 5 ÷ 530 days
Full annual entitlement30 days
Entitlement for this year30 days

Conversion to your working week

Leave days = contractual leave × your working days ÷ 5. The number of weekly hours is irrelevant — what counts is on how many days per week you work.

Statutory floor

24 working days under § 3 BUrlG, converted to your working week. This floor always applies, even if the contract names a lower figure.

Twelfths under § 5 BUrlG

You are entitled to the full annual leave this year — the six-month qualifying period is met and you are not leaving in the first half of the year.

Holiday pay-out under § 11 BUrlG

If leave can no longer be taken because the employment ends, it must be paid out (§ 7 (4) BUrlG). The daily rate follows from average earnings over the last 13 weeks — three monthly salaries — divided by 13 weeks and your working days per week.

Holiday pay per day

€166.15

Value of remaining leave

€3,655.30

Daily rate = gross monthly salary × 3 ÷ 13 weeks ÷ working days per week

A holiday pay-out is ordinary taxable pay and subject to social insurance contributions. Overtime pay is expressly excluded when calculating holiday pay.

What else you should know

  • Leave must in principle be taken within the calendar year. Carrying it over is only permitted for urgent operational or personal reasons — the remainder then expires on 31 March (§ 7 (3) BUrlG).
  • Leave only expires, however, if the employer gave clear and timely notice of the entitlement and of the looming forfeiture. Without that notice the entitlement survives and rolls into the following year.
  • If you fall ill during your leave, the affected days are not lost: with a medical certificate they are not counted against your annual leave (§ 9 BUrlG). You may not, however, extend the holiday on your own initiative.
  • This calculation assumes full calendar months and an evenly distributed working week. Fluctuating working days, unpaid special leave or diverging collective rules can change the result. Not legal advice.

Important: a contract may only improve on the law, never undercut it

The statutory minimum leave in § 3 BUrlG cannot be waived (§ 13 BUrlG): 24 working days on a six-day week, which equals 20 working days on a five-day week. Employment and collective agreements may grant more leave, never less. This calculation is a non-binding estimate and does not replace legal advice.

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Guide: understanding your holiday entitlement

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Frequently Asked Questions

§ 3 (1) BUrlG names 24 working days per year. Working days are all calendar days except Sundays and public holidays, so Saturdays count too — the law assumes a six-day week. Anyone working five days a week is therefore entitled to 20 working days of leave (24 ÷ 6 × 5). On a four-day week that is 16 days, on a three-day week 12. Under § 13 BUrlG this minimum cannot be waived: a contract may grant more leave, never less.

What matters is solely the number of weekdays on which you work, not the weekly hours. The formula is: leave days = contractual leave × your working days ÷ 5. Someone with 30 days in the contract who reduces to three days a week ends up with 18 days (30 × 3 ÷ 5). Someone who reduces hours but still works five days keeps all 30 days — just with shorter days. The calculator on this page does exactly this conversion for you.

Under § 4 BUrlG the full entitlement arises for the first time once the employment has lasted six months. Before that you do not have zero leave but partial leave of one twelfth per full month of employment. The consequence for your first year matters: anyone starting by 1 July completes the qualifying period within the same calendar year and is then entitled to the full annual leave, not merely a time-proportional share. Anyone starting in August or later receives twelfths for that year.

§ 5 (1) BUrlG grants one twelfth of the annual leave for each full month of employment in three cases: when the qualifying period can no longer be completed in the calendar year, when you leave before completing it, and when you leave in the first half of the year after completing it. Example: 30 contractual days, starting on 1 September — that is four full months, so 30 × 4 ÷ 12 = 10 days. If instead you leave in July or later, the full annual entitlement stands.

§ 5 (2) BUrlG is unambiguous: fractions of holiday days amounting to at least half a day must be rounded up to full days. The law provides no rounding down. If the calculation gives 12.5 days, that becomes 13. If it gives 12.3 days, it stays 12.3 — the fraction is not forfeited but can be requested as a part day or paid out at the end. This rule covers the statutory minimum; different rounding may be agreed for contractual extra leave.

Leave must in principle be taken within the calendar year. Under § 7 (3) BUrlG a carry-over is only permitted for urgent operational or personal reasons — and the leave must then be taken by 31 March. Decisive, however, is the case law of the European Court of Justice, which the German courts have followed: leave only expires if the employer gave you clear and timely notice of the outstanding days and of the looming forfeiture. Without that notice the days accumulate.

If leave can no longer be taken because the employment ends, § 7 (4) BUrlG requires it to be paid out. The daily rate follows the holiday pay rule in § 11 (1) BUrlG: average earnings over the last 13 weeks, divided by 13 weeks and your working days per week. On 3,600 euros gross per month and a five-day week that gives (3,600 × 3) ÷ 13 ÷ 5 = roughly 166 euros per day. Ten outstanding days are therefore worth around 1,660 euros. Overtime pay is expressly excluded from this calculation.

Two statutory add-ons matter most. Employees with a recognised severe disability receive five additional paid working days per year under § 208 (1) SGB IX, based on a five-day week and converted proportionally for other patterns. For young workers § 19 (2) JArbSchG applies a scale based on age at the start of the calendar year: at least 30 working days below 16, 27 below 17 and 25 below 18. The calculator on this page includes both on request.