Part-Time Work: Converting Hourly Pay and Salary Correctly
Part-time work is no longer a marginal phenomenon — close to one in three dependent employment relationships in Germany is part-time. All the more surprising, then, how often conversions between full and part-time are done as though a month were four weeks long. This piece sets out the clean calculation routes for the three situations in which the question actually arises: reducing your own hours, evaluating a part-time offer, and scaling up to a full-time equivalent.
The principle: same hourly rate, fewer hours
German part-time law forbids treating part-time employees worse than comparable full-time colleagues purely because of their shorter hours. Pay must correspond to the share of working time — so the hourly rate stays the same and only the number of hours falls. Someone earning €3,200 on 40 weekly hours has an hourly rate of €18.41; at 30 hours that gives €2,400, at 20 hours €1,600. If an offer falls below that, it is worth asking why.
Route 1: reducing from full-time to part-time
The simplest variant is a proportion: new salary = old salary × new hours ÷ old hours. Going from 40 to 32 hours on €3,800 gross per month gives 3,800 × 32 ÷ 40 = €3,040. Alternatively you can work through the hourly rate: 3,800 ÷ (40 × 4.345) = €21.86, multiplied by 32 × 4.345 = 139.0 monthly hours, which again gives €3,040. Both routes reach the same result; the detour via the hourly rate has the advantage that the figure can be compared directly with other offers. You can switch and recalculate in the hourly wage calculator.
Route 2: evaluating a part-time offer
If an advert states a salary for a 25-hour post, you need the full-time equivalent for comparison. €2,100 on 25 weekly hours corresponds to an hourly rate of 2,100 ÷ (25 × 4.345) = €19.33 and therefore to a notional full-time salary of €3,360. Only that figure can be compared with other offers or with pay scales. Check as well whether additional payments are made pro rata or in full — that can be worth several hundred euros a year.
Holiday entitlement travels with you
In part-time work the number of holiday days changes, not the amount of rest measured in weeks. Someone moving from five to three working days a week keeps the same entitlement in weeks: 30 holiday days become 30 × 3 ÷ 5 = 18 days. The statutory floor is 20 working days on a five-day week, and correspondingly twelve on a three-day week. Mid-year changes matter: for the months already elapsed, the previous entitlement stands. The holiday entitlement calculator works through the details.
Reduced hours, disproportionate workload
The most common disappointment in part-time work is not the salary but the volume of tasks. Anyone cutting their hours by 20 percent while still handling 90 percent of the previous workload is in effect working for a considerably lower hourly rate. Two unpaid extra hours a week cost 6.3 percent of the hourly rate on a 30-hour post — at €18.41 that is €1.15 an hour. Put the division of tasks in writing before you reduce, and review after three months whether the arithmetic holds.
What happens to net pay
The step from gross to net is not proportional in part-time work. Because income tax is progressive, the average rate falls as income falls — so proportionally slightly more of the reduced gross remains than of the full amount. Social security contributions, on the other hand, continue to accrue proportionally as long as you stay above the marginal earnings threshold. Work out the concrete figures in the gross-to-net salary calculator before you apply for reduced hours.
Do not forget the pension
Part-time work lowers contributions to the statutory pension scheme and therefore your future entitlement points. Reducing from 40 to 30 hours over ten years means forgoing a quarter of the pension entitlements accrued in that period. That is not an argument against part-time work, but it is an argument for planning the gap consciously — through additional private provision or a later return to full-time. With bridge part-time there is a right of return from the outset; otherwise you have priority when a comparable position falls vacant.
Conclusion
Always convert part-time work via the hourly rate rather than rough percentages — and always with the 4.345 factor rather than four weeks a month. Check additional payments, holiday entitlement and the real volume of tasks as well. The hourly wage calculator takes care of the arithmetic and at the same time shows how unpaid extra work affects the real rate of your part-time post.