German Working Hours Act 2026: Breaks, Maximum Hours and Rest Periods Explained

Why it pays to do the maths

How long did you actually work this week? It sounds like a simple question, but in everyday life it quickly gets messy: some days you start earlier, the lunch break gets shorter, and on Friday you leave early. If you record your hours properly, you can see at a glance whether you have built up overtime, whether your time account is correct and whether the legal limits were respected.

In Germany, the legal framework is set by the Working Hours Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz, ArbZG). It governs how long you may work per day, when you are entitled to which break and how much rest must lie between two working days. This guide explains the rules with worked examples. You can enter your own week directly in the working hours calculator: it works out your net working time and shows where things get tight legally.

How to calculate your working time

The basic formula is always the same: end of work minus start of work minus break. An example: you start at 8:00, leave at 17:00 and take a 45-minute lunch break. There are 9 hours between start and end. Subtract the 45 minutes and you get 8 hours and 15 minutes of working time.

For payroll or timesheets this time is often written as a decimal, i.e. 8.25 hours. Behind this is the conversion to decimal time: 15 minutes is a quarter of an hour, so 0.25 hours. We explain exactly how this works in Converting minutes to decimal hours.

For the week, you add up the individual days. If you work 8:15 hours on each of five days, that makes 41 hours and 15 minutes. On a 40-hour contract you have therefore built up 1:15 hours of overtime.

Special case: night shift

If your shift ends after midnight, the end time is mathematically before the start time. The solution: calculate up to midnight and from midnight separately. From 22:00 to 6:00 that is 2 hours plus 6 hours, i.e. 8 hours of attendance. With a 30-minute break, 7:30 hours of working time remain. The calculator detects night shifts automatically.

How long may you work per day? (Section 3 ArbZG)

The law refers to working time per working day. It may not exceed 8 hours. Working days are Monday to Saturday, so Saturday counts too. This results in a working week of up to 48 hours.

The 8 hours are not a rigid limit, though. Your employer may extend working time to up to 10 hours per day if an average of 8 hours per working day is reached again over 6 calendar months or 24 weeks. So if you work 10 hours on some days, you need to work correspondingly shorter hours or have time off on other days.

More than 10 hours per day is generally not allowed under the Working Hours Act. Deviations are only possible within narrow limits, for example through a collective agreement or in genuine emergencies. For the week this results in an absolute ceiling of 60 hours (6 working days × 10 hours) and an average of no more than 48 hours.

Important: these limits apply to employees. Senior executives, chief physicians and some other groups are exempt from the Working Hours Act. For young people under 18, the Youth Employment Protection Act applies with stricter rules.

When are you entitled to which break? (Section 4 ArbZG)

The break rules are where mistakes most often creep in. The basic rule:

The break may be split, but each block must last at least 15 minutes. Two 5-minute coffee breaks therefore do not count. In addition, you may not work more than 6 hours in a row without a break. If you start at 7:00, you need your first break by 13:00 at the latest.

Breaks are not working time. They are therefore deducted and usually not paid. What matters is that you are genuinely free during the break. If you have to answer the phone or stay at your desk, legally that is not a rest break but working time.

Worked example: the 6-hour threshold

You work from 8:00 to 14:30 without a break. That is 6:30 hours, i.e. more than 6. The law requires a 30-minute break. If you take it, your working day ends at 15:00 and your working time stays at 6:30 hours. If, however, you work exactly from 8:00 to 14:00, that is 6 hours and no break is legally required.

Worked example: the 9-hour threshold

From 7:00 to 17:00 with a 30-minute break gives 9:30 hours of working time. That is more than 9 hours, so a 45-minute break is mandatory. With a 45-minute break you end up at 9:15 hours. That is still above 9 hours, but 45 minutes is enough. The calculator shows you for each day whether the break is long enough.

How much rest do you need between two working days? (Section 5 ArbZG)

After work, at least 11 hours of uninterrupted rest must follow before you start again. If you finish a late shift at 22:00, you may start work again at 9:00 the next morning at the earliest. Switching from a late shift to an early shift without a day off in between is therefore usually not allowed.

In some sectors the rest period may be shortened by up to one hour to 10 hours: in hospitals and care facilities, restaurants and hotels, transport companies, broadcasting, agriculture and animal husbandry. Each reduction must be offset within a calendar month or four weeks by extending another rest period to at least 12 hours.

By the way: a short email late in the evening can legally interrupt the rest period, after which the 11 hours start again. Many courts and experts take this view, but it has not been conclusively settled.

Sundays and public holidays (Section 9 ArbZG)

In principle you may not be employed on Sundays and public holidays. However, the law contains a long list of exceptions, for example for hospitals, care, hospitality, transport, energy supply, fire services or the media. Anyone who works on a Sunday gets a compensatory day off within two weeks, and within eight weeks for work on a public holiday. At least 15 Sundays a year must remain free.

Planned: a weekly instead of a daily maximum

The governing coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD agreed in its coalition agreement to replace the daily maximum working time with a weekly one. In June 2026 the Labour Ministry presented a draft bill. Under it, longer working days would only be possible where a collective agreement or a works agreement based on one allows it, and electronic time recording would become mandatory. For companies without a collective agreement, the 8-hour day would remain.

As of September 2026, none of this is in force.

There is no cabinet decision, the parliamentary procedure has not begun, and content and timetable may still change. Until a new law is passed and takes effect, the rules described here continue to apply unchanged: 8 hours per day, 10 at most, averaging out at no more than 48 hours per week. The calculator therefore checks against current law.

Recording working time: what applies today?

Employers are already obliged to record their employees' working time. The Federal Labour Court ruled this in 2022. Exactly how this must be done, whether electronically, on paper or in a spreadsheet, is not yet regulated in detail by law. Under the Working Hours Act, employers must at least record any working time exceeding 8 hours per day and keep these records for two years.

Regardless of this, it is worth keeping your own records. In a dispute about overtime, you have to show when and how long you worked. A clean weekly overview keeps you on the safe side.

From working time to money

Once you know your hours, you can convert them into euros. The hourly wage calculator shows what one working hour is worth on your salary. If you have built up overtime, the overtime calculator works out what remains after tax and contributions. And if you are planning your working week, keep your holidays in view too: the holiday entitlement calculator determines how many days of leave you are entitled to.

Key points at a glance

This guide provides a general overview and does not replace legal advice. Collective and works agreements may contain different rules. If in doubt, your works council, trade union or an employment lawyer can help.