Working hours in gyms: what applies to the front desk, classes and weekends

The limits in the gym

A gym has exactly one exception of its own in the Working Hours Act: Sunday. The general limits apply to the daily maximum, breaks and the rest period, even with long opening hours. The industry is not on the list in section 2a SchwarzArbG, so the recording duty under section 17 MiLoG applies to mini-jobbers.

Closing late, opening early: the rest period

Many gyms open at 6 am and close at 11 pm. Anyone working the late shift until 11 pm may start again at 10 am the next day at the earliest, because eleven hours of rest lie between two shifts (section 5(1) ArbZG). Switching from the late shift to the early shift at 6 am leaves only seven hours and is not allowed. Gyms have no shortening like hospitality or care.

Night time is the period from 11 pm to 6 am. Night work is any work that covers more than two hours of it (section 2(3) and (4) ArbZG). In a gym closing at 11 pm, that hardly occurs. In a gym that is staffed around the clock, the rules of section 6 ArbZG apply to the night shift.

Sundays and public holidays in the gym

In sport and in leisure, recreation and entertainment facilities, employees may work on Sundays and public holidays where the work cannot be done on working days (section 10(1) no. 7 ArbZG). The front desk and the training floor on an open Sunday belong to this, catching up on office work does not.

Two counter-rules apply. At least 15 Sundays a year stay free for each person (section 11(1) ArbZG). And anyone who works on a Sunday gets a replacement rest day within two weeks, after a public holiday falling on a working day within eight weeks (section 11(3) ArbZG). With a small team and seven opening days, this count is the bottleneck in the roster.

There is no statutory Sunday premium. If the gym pays one, it is only tax-free under section 3b EStG if it is paid for hours actually worked on Sunday. That requires the hours per day, not a weekly total.

Front desk temps: on-call work

Many front desk staff are rostered as needed. This is on-call work under section 12 TzBfG if the contract provides that the person works according to the workload, so the timing or duration of working time is not fixed. If both are fixed in the contract, section 12 TzBfG does not apply. For on-call work the law sets three limits. The person only has to work if the timing was announced at least four days in advance (section 12(3) TzBfG). Without agreed weekly hours, 20 hours count as agreed. And if the daily duration is not fixed, each deployment has to last at least three consecutive hours (section 12(1) TzBfG).

An on-call deployment to cover the same evening is therefore only possible with the person's agreement, not as an instruction. Anyone working at the front desk in a mini-job also has an earnings limit of 603 euros a month, around 43 hours at the 13.90 euro minimum wage. Every additional cover shift moves closer to that limit.

Class trainers and several employers

If a class trainer is employed by the gym, it is not only the class hour that counts. Setting up, music, inducting new members and clearing away belong to working time if they are done on the gym's behalf. Anyone who only records the class duration underestimates the hours, and with them the mini-job limit.

Many trainers work in several gyms. Working times with several employers are added together (section 2(1) ArbZG), for the daily limit as well as for the rest period. Ask about the other jobs when hiring. Whether a trainer is employed or self-employed at all is not decided by the contract but by the actual integration into the business, see the industry page for gyms.

Trainees and temps under 18

Young people may work at most eight hours a day and 40 hours a week, only between 6 am and 8 pm (sections 8 and 14 JArbSchG). Their breaks are longer than adults': 30 minutes beyond four and a half hours, 60 minutes beyond six hours (section 11 JArbSchG). A late shift until 11 pm is ruled out for them.

The Youth Employment Protection Act allows Saturday and Sunday work “in sport” (section 16(2) no. 9, section 17(2) no. 6 JArbSchG). At least two Sundays a month then stay free, and the five-day week is secured by a day off in the same week. Whether a task in the gym falls under “in sport” is something to clarify with the supervisory authority before you roster young people at weekends.

Who has to record working time in a gym

For mini-jobbers, section 17 MiLoG applies in full: the start, end and duration of every working day by the end of the seventh calendar day, kept for two years. Under section 1 MiLoDokV, only spouses, registered partners, children and parents of the employer who work in the business are exempt.

For everyone else, two things apply. Working time beyond eight hours per working day is recorded under section 16(2) ArbZG. And since the Federal Labour Court's order of 13 September 2022, employers have to record working time in principle, without a prescribed form.

Part-time and mini-jobs in figures

Official statistics do not show gyms separately. The closest figure is the 2025 microcensus for the combined sections arts, entertainment and recreation, other services and private households. There Destatis counted, according to preliminary results, 861,000 dependent core employees, meaning people aged 15 to 64 without people in education or training. Of these, 303,000 worked part-time with at most 20 hours a week and 158,000 in a mini-job. The two groups overlap, because many mini-jobs are also part-time. So just over one in three works at most 20 hours a week there, almost one in five in a mini-job.

Front desk, classes and hours in one system

In MetronHR front desk staff and trainers clock in at the terminal with an NFC card, without a private phone, or via the app. The time is in the system to the minute on the same day, without rounding. For mini-jobbers and temps the contract can be kept without target hours, and the clocked hours still show per day.

In the roster of the Professional plan, MetronHR reports before publication when less than the configured rest period lies between late and early shift, or the daily or weekly limit or the maximum number of consecutive working days is exceeded. For young people it also checks the time window, the five-day week and Saturday and Sunday. Sunday and public holiday hours per person are in the monthly Excel overview and in the payroll file for DATEV at the end of the month.