Calculating leave entitlement
Part-time work, joining or leaving in the middle of the year: the entitlement changes, and not always in the way people expect.
Your entries
What the contract provides for a full-time employee.
The reference value for the conversion.
Only where employment starts in the reference year.
Only where an end date is set.
Result
Calculation
- Annual entitlement = 30 ÷ 5 × 5 = 30 days
- Statutory minimum = 24 ÷ 6 × 5 = 20 days
No sign-up, no storage, calculated in the browser.
How it is calculated
The calculator covers the basic statutory rules. Collective agreements, works agreements and employment contracts may contain more favourable arrangements, and for a specific case it is better to ask someone with a licence to practise.
The statutory minimum leave
Under section 3 of the German Federal Leave Act (BUrlG), leave amounts to at least 24 working days a year. Working days here are all calendar days except Sundays and public holidays, so the calculation assumes a six-day week. Someone working five days is legally entitled to 20 days.
The conversion runs via working days rather than hours: someone working three days a week instead of five gets three fifths of the days of leave. The length of the individual working days makes no difference.
Pro rata leave, and when not
Under section 4 BUrlG, the full entitlement first arises after six months of employment. For the time before that, section 5 BUrlG grants one twelfth per full month of employment.
Here is the rule most calculators skip: leave is only reduced on departure if somebody leaves in the first half of the calendar year (section 5(1)(c)). Anyone who has completed the qualifying period and leaves on 31 August is entitled to the full annual leave, not to eight twelfths.
The reverse applies when joining: anyone starting early enough in the year for the six months to be completed within the same calendar year acquires the full entitlement for that year. Starting on 1 July still just qualifies.
Rounding
Fractions of leave days amounting to at least half a day are to be rounded up to full days under section 5(2) BUrlG. The calculator shows both values, the exact one and the rounded one, because the rounding rule in the act sits with pro rata leave and employment contracts may deviate from it.
To read and take along
- Bridge days and what they cost in leave
- Calculating the working days in a period
- How long pay continues in case of illness
- Maternity protection: the start and end of the protection period
- Overtime calculator
- Break calculator
- Calculating working time, day by day and for the week
- Calculating the hourly rate from a monthly salary
- How many hours a mini-job allows
- Tax-free premiums for night, Sunday and public holiday work
- Maximum working time and the balancing period
- Remaining leave and payment in lieu on departure
- Leave when the number of working days changes
Frequently asked questions
What we get asked about this most often.
Question not answered here? Every step is explained in the help centre.
Send us a messageHow many days of leave am I entitled to on a four-day week?
By law it is four sixths of 24 days, so 16 days. If your contract provides more for full-time work, the same rule of three is applied to the contractual entitlement: 30 days on a five-day week gives 24 days on four days.
Do I get less leave if I work shorter days?
No. Leave entitlement is measured in working days, not in hours. Someone working five days of four hours each has the same entitlement in days as a full-time employee working five days.
Is my leave reduced if I resign in the summer?
If the qualifying period of six months is complete and you leave in the second half of the year, you are entitled to the full annual leave. The twelfths rule under section 5(1)(c) BUrlG only applies when leaving in the first half of the year.
May my contract provide less leave than the calculator shows?
No contract may go below the statutory minimum leave. The calculator therefore states where that minimum lies for your working days. A contract may of course provide more leave than the minimum.
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