Working Hours in Germany Legal working days in Germany are from Monday to Saturday, but for most workers, a standard work week is from 8 or 9 AM to 5 PM, Monday through Friday. Employees are allowed to work up to 10 hours per day, as long as the total weekly work time is not longer than 48 hours.
An average working week in Germany as a full-time employee is between 36 and 40 hours, with working days in Germany between 7 and 8 hours. A full-time employee in Germany has an average working week of 40 hours. University students can also work during their studies but the requirements are different.
Full-time work in Germany
The average working week in Germany is between 36 and 40 hours. The majority of full-time jobs in Germany are seven or eight hours a day, five days a week, with an hour or 30 minutes' break at lunchtime.
You should not drive for more than 9 hours a day, excluding breaks. For every 4.5 hours driving you should take breaks amounting to 45 minutes. For long-distance driving, this means you can drive around 500 miles safely in a day.
Germany is home to one of the shortest average working weeks in Europe. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), the average working week is 34.2 hours. Yet, trade unions are calling for further reduced working hours.
Monday to Saturday are considered the legal working days, but most employees typically work from Monday to Friday. Workdays usually start between 8-9 am and finish between 5-6 pm. Lunch breaks are 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Legal working days in Germany are from Monday to Saturday, but for most workers, a standard work week is from 8 or 9 AM to 5 PM, Monday through Friday.
The study also found that Germans tend to overestimate how much sleep they actually get. The researchers found that while Germans estimated on average that they sleep nearly seven hours a night, the sleep sensors found that the true answer was six hours on average.
Statutory full-time working hours
In Germany, a typical workweek consists of 36-40 hours. The majority of full-time occupations in Germany are seven or eight hours a day, five days a week, with an hour or 30 minutes break at lunchtime. Working without a break for more than six hours is illegal in Germany!
What is the difference between full days & half days? A full day is defined as 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week in Germany, This means that students are allowed to work only 2.5 full days per week during the semester.
Work on Sundays and public holidays is generally prohibited. There are exceptions available for workers in the service industry. However, work on Sundays has to be compensated for by corresponding time off within the next two weeks (or eight weeks in the case of work on public holidays).
Lunch. Lunch in Germany is called Mittagessen and is usually eaten between 12 pm and 2 pm. Germans traditionally enjoy their main cooked meal for lunch rather than dinner.
But in Germany, the traditional dinner time is much earlier: you'll find many German households having their evening meal between 5 and 7 pm.
A standard pensionable age of 67 will then apply to those born in 1964 or later. Early retirement is possible from the age of 63 after an insurance period of at least 35 years, but with permanent deductions. Persons with an exceptionally long insurance period of at least 45 years can retire early without deductions.
According to the OECD, the country with the shortest working week is the Netherlands, with a reported 29.5 weekly working hours. Broken down by day, that translates to a four-day workweek with just 7.37-hour days. Denmark follows with 32.5 working hours a week, and then Norway, with 33.6.
First things first, let's take a look at the overall average salary in Germany. According to data from the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, the average annual gross salary in 2020 stood at €47,700, equivalent to a monthly income of €3,975, before taxes.
Holiday Leave in Germany
Employees are entitled to a minimum of 24 days off for a 6-day work week and 20 days for a 5-day one. In reality, most employees receive 25-30 days of leave, even on a 5-day workweek. Employers may provide additional leave to employees who perform intense or dangerous work.
25% of basic wage for night work. If the night work begins before midnight, the tax-free surcharge limit is 40% for the period between midnight and 4 a.m. 50% of basic wage for Sunday work. 125% of basic wage for work on holidays, and on 31 December after 2 p.m.
Labour law prohibits taking the break at the end of the day's work in order to leave earlier. Breaks are not considered working time and are therefore not paid.
According to the data analyzed by the Online Bulletin and PR Service B2Press New Zealand, Finland, and the Netherlands are among the countries that sleep the most, while almost 50 percent of the people in Turkey state that they sleep 8 hours a day, which increases to 10 hours on weekends.
Germany has no tradition of the kind of extended afternoon breaks that are common, for example, in Spain. The country's health minister reacted positively to the suggestion on Tuesday but said companies and employees would have to decide whether to take it up.
In the UAE's Sharjah, employees get a three-day weekend that includes Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. A little over a year after the implementation of a four-day work week in Sharjah, a government study found that there was a 90 percent rise in the job performance, happiness, and mental health of employees.
The standard working week in Sweden is 40 hours.
Standard hours
The French working hours are usually 8 or 9 AM to 4 or 5 PM, with 1 hour of unpaid lunch break. This will, however, vary depending on the business and company agreements. The weekly working hours are 35 (7 hours a day, five days a week). Hours worked beyond this quota are compulsory paid as overtime.