Target hours
Target hours are the hours a person has to work contractually in a period. They are the comparison figure for the hours actually worked and therefore the basis of every time account.
As of:September 2026
How they are calculated
The weekly target is in the employment contract. For a month it is either multiplied by the actual working days or projected as a flat rate with the factor 4.348 weeks (365 days divided by seven and by twelve).
Both routes are permissible but give different monthly figures. Anyone using the factor gets the same target every month; anyone counting working days gets less in February than in March. What matters is only that you stick with one.
MetronHR works these figures out itself: time accounts, premiums, overtime and the limits of the German Working Hours Act, with every booking.
Public holidays, leave and illness
On a statutory public holiday falling on a working day, the working time lost is paid (section 2 of the Continued Remuneration Act). In the time account that day's target time is therefore credited, not deducted.
The same applies to leave and illness: for those days the target time is treated as worked. Anyone handling it differently produces negative hours for times when nobody had to work.
For part-time work with unevenly distributed days, the specific day matters: anyone working eight hours on Mondays and four on Fridays is credited eight hours for a public holiday on a Monday.
Example: a month with a public holiday
- Contract: 30 hours a week over five days, so 6 hours a day.
- May 2026 has 20 working days, one of them a public holiday on 1 May.
- Target hours by working days: 20 × 6 = 120 hours.
- The public holiday is credited with 6 hours, so 114 hours have to be worked.
Common mistake
Public holidays get counted into the target time as ordinary working days, with no credit. Over a year, on a five-day week that adds up to as much as 13 days, so more than 100 hours in the negative that nobody caused.
Further reading
- Section 2 EFZG, section 3 EFZG
- Section 4 TzBfG
This is not legal advice; for a specific case at your workplace you are better off asking someone qualified to give it.
Published by: AMNAU GmbH
Editorial responsibility: Ugur Aydogan, Product development.
Last reviewed: September 2026
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Related terms
Working time account
A working time account records how many hours somebody is above or below the agreed working time. The balance is settled over a defined period, through time off or through payment.
Flexitime
With flexitime, employees determine the start and end of their daily working time themselves within a given framework. The agreed working time stays unchanged, only its timing is flexible.
Time off in lieu
Compensatory time off means that extra work performed is offset by paid release from work instead of payment. It requires an agreement; it does not follow from the law.
Bridge part-time work
Bridge part-time work is an entitlement to reduce working time for a fixed period of one to five years, with a subsequent return to the previous working time. It is governed by section 9a of the Part-Time and Fixed-Term Employment Act.
Core working hours
Core time is the part of the flexitime framework in which all employees have to be present. Outside it, the start and the end can be chosen freely.
Set-up time
Set-up time is the time for activities preceding or following the actual work: changing clothes, laying out tools, starting up machines, handovers. It is working time in so far as it serves the employer.
Travel time
Travel time is time spent on journeys connected with work. The journey between home and the workplace does not count as working time, journeys between two places of work during the working day do.
Working day
Working days are all days except Sundays and statutory public holidays, so Monday to Saturday. The Working Hours Act and the Federal Leave Act count in working days, not in workdays.
Work on demand
Work on demand means the work is performed according to the volume of work arising. The employer determines the timing at short notice, and in return section 12 TzBfG protects employees with four firm rules.
Continued pay
Continued pay is the continued payment of remuneration during illness-related incapacity for work and on statutory public holidays, without work being done.
Public holiday pay
Public holiday pay is the remuneration for working time lost solely because of a statutory public holiday. It is not an allowance but the continued payment of the regular wage.
Balancing period
The balancing period is the span over which the average of eight hours of daily working time has to be observed. It is six calendar months or 24 weeks.
Negative hours
Negative hours are a negative balance in a working time account: the time worked is below the target time. Whether they have to be made up or can be set off depends on who caused them.
Annual working time
In an annual working time model the working time owed is set for a whole year rather than for the week. Its distribution across the months follows demand.