Working time
Working time is the time from the start to the end of work excluding rest breaks. Where somebody works for several employers, the times are added together.
As of:September 2026
What the term covers
The definition in section 2(1) ArbZG is short and is nevertheless regularly read too narrowly. Working time is not only the time at the actual workplace but any time in which the employer disposes over the person. That includes set-up and changing times in so far as they serve the employer, journeys between places of work, stand-by duty at the business and required training.
It does not include rest breaks, the journey from home to the workplace, or times in which somebody is free to do as they please. On-call duty at home in principle does not count, the actual call-outs from it do.
The sentence most often overlooked
Working times with several employers are to be added together. Anyone working at one business in the morning and at a second in the evening exceeds the maximum working time not per business but overall.
Responsibility falls on every employer who knows of the secondary work or ought to know of it. That is why many employment contracts contain a duty to notify secondary work, and that is why it is more than a formality.
MetronHR works these figures out itself: time accounts, premiums, overtime and the limits of the German Working Hours Act, with every booking.
Working time law and pay law are two questions
Whether a period is working time within the meaning of the Working Hours Act determines maximum working time, breaks and rest periods. Whether it has to be paid is determined by the employment contract or a collective agreement.
The two answers often coincide, but not always. Stand-by duty is working time in full, but may be paid at a lower rate as long as the minimum wage is still reached for the total time.
Example: two employers in one day
- Business A: 06:00 to 12:00, 30 minutes' break, so 5.5 hours.
- Business B: 17:00 to 21:00, no break, so 4 hours.
- Total: 9.5 hours. The limit of eight hours is exceeded.
- That is permitted only if an average of eight hours a working day is achieved within the balancing period.
Common mistake
Each business counts only its own hours. For employees with a second job, an excess arises that is visible in neither set of records.
Further reading
- Section 2(1) ArbZG
- „Working time within the meaning of this Act is the time from the start to the end of work excluding rest breaks; working times with several employers are to be added together.“
- Section 3 ArbZG, section 4 ArbZG, section 5 ArbZG
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
Rest break
A rest break is an interruption of work fixed in advance in which no work is expected. It does not count towards working time and is as a rule not paid.
Rest period
The rest period is the continuous free time between the end of one working day and the start of the next. It is at least eleven hours.
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.
On-call duty
Stand-by duty means staying at a place determined by the employer in order to start work immediately when needed. It counts as working time in full.
Readiness for work
Readiness for work is the time at the workplace in which no work arises but work has to be reckoned with at any moment. The case law describes it as alert attention in a state of relaxation.
Mobile working
Mobile working is work performed independently of location using information technology. Working from home in the legal sense is the narrower case of a permanently set-up teleworking station in the home.
Record-keeping duty
The record-keeping duty is the duty to record working times. It follows not from one provision but from several that differ in scope, deadline and addressee.