Calculating Holiday Entitlement: Statutory, Contractual, Pro-Rata
The question of how many days of leave you are actually owed sounds trivial and is nevertheless answered incorrectly all the time. The reason is that three layers interlock: the inalienable statutory minimum, the leave agreed in your contract, and the pro-rata reduction when you join or leave part-way through the year. This guide works through the layers in order and puts concrete figures behind each step. You can enter your own values alongside in the holiday entitlement calculator and compare the result directly.
The statutory floor: 24 working days
§ 3 (1) of the Federal Leave Act puts it briefly: leave amounts to at least 24 working days per year. The pitfall lies in the word working day. Subsection 2 clarifies that working days are all calendar days that are neither Sundays nor public holidays — so Saturday counts. The statute assumes a six-day week, whereas almost all employment today is built on five days.
The statutory minimum therefore has to be converted: 24 working days divided by six weekdays, multiplied by your own working days. On five working days that gives 20 days of leave, on four days 16, on three days 12 and on two days 8. These figures are the absolute floor. Under § 13 BUrlG no deviation to the employee's disadvantage is permitted — not even by collective agreement, as far as the statutory minimum is concerned.
Contractual entitlement and conversion to your working week
In practice most contracts sit well above the minimum: between 25 and 30 days on a five-day week is the norm, and some sectors add collectively agreed extra days. The distinction between the statutory core of 20 days and the surplus above it matters. Only the statutory portion enjoys the strict protective rules of the Federal Leave Act; for the surplus the parties may agree their own rules on expiry, carry-over and reduction — but they must do so expressly and clearly.
If you work three or six days a week rather than five, the contractual leave has to be converted. The formula is: leave days = contractual leave × your working days ÷ 5. With 30 contractual days and a three-day week that gives 18 days of leave. The recuperative value is identical, because in both cases it amounts to six full working weeks off.
What counts is solely the number of weekdays worked, not the weekly hours. Someone reducing from 40 to 30 hours while still working five days keeps all 30 days of leave. Someone who keeps the hours but compresses them into four days is left with 24 days. Many employees overlook this difference when signing a variation to their contract.
Qualifying period and twelfths under § 5 BUrlG
§ 4 BUrlG provides that the full entitlement is acquired for the first time once the employment has lasted six months. In those first six months there is therefore not no leave at all, but partial leave of one twelfth per full month of employment. From that follows a rule that can be worth real money in your first year: anyone starting by 1 July at the latest completes the qualifying period within the same calendar year and is then entitled to the full annual leave, not merely half of it. The holiday entitlement calculator applies this threshold automatically as soon as you pick your joining month.
§ 5 (1) BUrlG names three cases in which only one twelfth of the annual leave accrues per full month of employment: when the qualifying period can no longer be completed within the calendar year, when you leave before completing it, and when you leave in the first half of the calendar year after completing it. An example: 30 contractual days, joining on 1 September — that is four full months, so 30 × 4 ÷ 12 = 10 days for the first year.
Now the reverse case: someone resigning after many years with effect from 31 March receives 30 × 3 ÷ 12 = 7.5 days. Someone leaving on 31 July has crossed the mid-year threshold and keeps the full annual entitlement of 30 days. And because § 5 (2) BUrlG rounds fractions of at least half a day up to full days, those 7.5 days become 8. Rounding down never happens: if 7.3 days remain, it stays 7.3, and the fraction can be taken as a part day or paid out at the end.
Extra entitlements and cash value
Two statutory add-ons sit on top. Employees with a recognised severe disability receive five additional paid working days per leave year under § 208 (1) SGB IX, based on a five-day week and converted proportionally for other patterns — so three extra days on a three-day week. 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 working days below 17 and 25 working days below 18.
Untaken leave has a concrete cash value the moment the employment ends. § 7 (4) BUrlG then requires a pay-out, and § 11 (1) BUrlG supplies the basis: average earnings over the last thirteen weeks. In practice that means gross monthly salary times three, divided by 13 weeks, divided by working days per week. On 3,600 euros gross and a five-day week that is roughly 166 euros per day of leave, so ten outstanding days come to around 1,660 euros.
Conclusion: calculate first, then negotiate
Holiday entitlement follows a chain of clearly regulated steps: establish the statutory floor, convert the contractual entitlement to your own working week, add the statutory extras, apply twelfths where required and round up under § 5 (2) BUrlG. Once you have worked that chain through for yourself, errors in a payroll statement stand out immediately. This overview is a non-binding orientation and does not replace employment law advice in a dispute.