Calculating working time, day by day and for the week
Enter seven days, and the calculator deducts the mandatory break, adds up the week and reports where the limits of the Working Hours Act give way.
Your week
Result
RqMon, Tue, Wed, Thu the working time is above eight hours. That is permitted only if an average of eight hours per working day is reached again over six calendar months or 24 weeks (section 3 ArbZG).
Calculation
- Mon: 9:00 h on site − 30 min break = 8:30 h
- Tue: 9:00 h on site − 30 min break = 8:30 h
- Wed: 9:00 h on site − 30 min break = 8:30 h
- Thu: 9:00 h on site − 30 min break = 8:30 h
- Fri: 7:00 h on site − 30 min break = 6:30 h
- Total = 40:30 h
- Month = 40:30 h × 4.33 weeks = 175:22 h
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How it is calculated
Net hours rather than time on site
Working time is the time from start to end without the rest breaks (section 2(1) ArbZG). Someone on site from 8 to 17 taking a 30-minute break works eight and a half hours, not nine.
The calculator works with the larger of the entered break and the legally required one. Anyone entering too short a break gets a warning, and the net time is calculated with the statutory break anyway. Anything else would produce a figure that would not hold up in a dispute.
The mandatory break depends on working time, not on time on site
Under section 4 ArbZG, at more than six hours at least 30 minutes and at more than nine hours at least 45 minutes of break are due. What is meant is working time, that is, time on site minus the break.
From that follows a subtlety that many calculators get wrong: at 9:30 hours on site, 30 minutes are enough, because exactly nine hours of working time remain. Only beyond that does the law require 45 minutes.
What the week allows
Daily working time must not exceed eight hours (section 3, first sentence, ArbZG). Working days are Monday to Saturday, which gives 48 weekly hours on average.
Ten hours a day are permitted if, within six calendar months or 24 weeks, eight hours a day are not exceeded on average (section 3, second sentence, ArbZG). More than ten hours is not possible even with compensation.
The projection to the month
The calculator multiplies the week by 4.33. That is the common approximation from 52 weeks divided by twelve months. More precise would be 4.348 (365 days divided by 7 divided by 12); the difference is around half a percent and does not matter in a projection.
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 2 ArbZG · Section 3 ArbZG · Section 4 ArbZG
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.
No. Rest breaks interrupt working time and are generally not paid. It is different when a collective agreement, a works agreement or the employment contract provides otherwise, or when someone has to stay on standby during the break; then it is not a rest break but stand-by duty and therefore working time.
The journey from home to the workplace does not. Journeys between two places of work during the working day do. On business trips it depends on whether the journey itself is part of the work owed; if in doubt, it is worth checking the collective agreement or the employment contract.
40 hours is the usual contractual full-time figure, 48 hours the statutory upper limit on average. The Working Hours Act counts in working days from Monday to Saturday: six times eight hours. A contract for 40 hours therefore still leaves room up to the statutory limit, but obliges nobody to use it.
Yes, if the balance works out: within six calendar months or 24 weeks, the average has to be back at eight hours a day (section 3, second sentence, ArbZG). More than ten hours is impermissible even with compensation; section 14 ArbZG governs exceptions for emergencies.
Question not answered here? Every step is explained in the help centre.
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Related
Further reading
Break rules: what the Working Hours Act prescribes
Matching template
Calculate working time with a break check