Calculating the working days in a period
A month has between 18 and 23 working days, depending on the federal state and where the public holidays fall. For target hours and payroll, that makes the difference.
Your entries
The first day of the period, inclusive.
The last day of the period, inclusive.
For public holidays the place of work counts, not the place of residence.
Which weekdays are working days at your business.
In hours. Leave empty if only the days are of interest.
Result
- New Year's Day, Friday, 01.01.2027
- Good Friday, Friday, 26.03.2027
- Easter Monday, Monday, 29.03.2027
- Ascension Day, Thursday, 06.05.2027
- Whit Monday, Monday, 17.05.2027
- Corpus Christi, Thursday, 27.05.2027
- All Saints' Day, Monday, 01.11.2027
4 Feiertage fallen in the period on a day that is free anyway. German law knows no substitute day for that; only a collective agreement or a works agreement can provide otherwise.
Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are statutory public holidays in no federal state and are therefore counted as working days here. If your business gives them off, deduct them manually.
Calculation
- Period 01.01.2027 to 31.12.2027 = 365 calendar days
- Of which Monday to Friday: 261 days
- Public holidays in the period: 11, of which 7 on a working day
- 261 − 7 = 254 working days
- Target hours = 254 × 8 h = 2032:00 h
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How it is calculated
Working day, workday, calendar day
The three terms get mixed up in everyday use and mean different things. **Werktage** (working days in the statutory sense) are, under section 3(2) BUrlG, all calendar days except Sundays and statutory public holidays, so Saturday is included. **Arbeitstage** (workdays) are the days on which work is actually done at the business. **Kalendertage** (calendar days) are all days.
The statutory leave entitlement counts in Werktage, while almost every employment contract counts in Arbeitstage. That is why 24 statutory Werktage correspond to 20 Arbeitstage on a five-day week.
Why the federal state matters
Nine public holidays apply nationwide, the rest depend on state law. Between ten public holidays in Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein and thirteen in Bavaria, there are up to three working days a year.
If a public holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, it changes nothing about the working days: it was not a working day anyway, and German law knows no substitute day.
What the figure is needed for
For target hours in the month, for converting a monthly salary into an hourly value, for pro rata payroll when someone joins or leaves mid-month, and for planning capacity in projects.
Anyone calculating target hours against a fixed divisor of 21.75 days is off in every single month and roughly right across the year. For a time account that somebody is meant to follow, the actual figure is the better basis.
Calculating once takes a minute. MetronHR carries these accounts forward continuously, for every employee, and shows the balance at the month end.
Further reading:Section 3 BUrlG · The public holiday acts of the federal states · Dates from the same calculation as in the product, as of 15/09/2026
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.
Frequently asked questions
What we get asked about this most often.
On a five-day week it is between 248 and 254, depending on the federal state and where the public holidays fall. The calculator counts the working days of the period and deducts the statutory public holidays of the chosen state that fall on a working day.
That depends on the working time arrangements at the business, not on the law. In leave law Saturday is a Werktag, but in most businesses it is not a workday. In the calculator, the number of working days per week can be set.
The working days of the month times the daily target hours. At 20 working days and 8 hours that is 160 hours. A fixed divisor such as 21.75 days is an annual average and matches no single month.
Both are ordinary working days and statutory public holidays in no federal state. Many businesses give them off; that is a voluntary benefit or set out in a collective agreement and has to be taken into account in the calculator yourself.
Question not answered here? Every step is explained in the help centre.
Calculating once is good. Never having to calculate again is better.
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