Working hours in hospitality: what applies and what you have to record

Maximum hours and breaks

In the kitchen and front of house, too, eight hours per working day are the rule. Ten hours are allowed if working time averages eight hours again within six calendar months or 24 weeks (section 3 ArbZG). Working days are Monday to Saturday, so a six-day week of up to 48 hours is lawful under the Act. A collective agreement or your employment contract can set less; this article does not evaluate the regional collective agreements of the hospitality industry.

Breaks are fixed in advance: 30 minutes for more than six and up to nine hours, 45 minutes for more than nine hours, divisible into blocks of at least 15 minutes. Nobody may work longer than six hours in a row without a break (section 4 ArbZG). According to case law, a quiet moment at the pass is not a break if somebody has to step in at any time.

Night time is the period from 11 pm to 6 am. A night worker is anyone who normally works nights on rotating shifts or has shifts with more than two hours in that period on at least 48 days a year (section 2(3) to (5) ArbZG). For night workers, averaging back to eight hours applies within one calendar month or four weeks, and for the night hours paid days off or a reasonable premium are due, unless a collective agreement covers it (section 6(2) and (5) ArbZG).

Rest period: ten hours instead of eleven, but only with compensation

After the end of the working day, everybody is entitled to eleven hours of uninterrupted rest (section 5(1) ArbZG). Restaurants and other catering and accommodation businesses may shorten it by up to one hour. Each shortening must be compensated within the same calendar month or within four weeks by another rest period lasting at least twelve hours (section 5(2) ArbZG).

An example: the late shift ends at 23:30. Without shortening, the next shift starts at 10:30 at the earliest, with shortening at 9:30. The same person then needs a gap of at least twelve hours between two shifts in the same month. The typical mistake is the switch from late to early that nobody works out, because the two shifts sit in different weeks of the roster.

Sundays and public holidays

As a rule, work stops on Sundays and public holidays (section 9 ArbZG). Restaurants and catering and accommodation businesses are, however, on the list of exceptions, where the work cannot be done on working days (section 10(1) no. 4 ArbZG). In return, counter-rules from section 11 ArbZG apply, and they often get lost in planning.

• At least 15 Sundays a year stay work-free for each person.
• Anyone who works on a Sunday gets a replacement rest day within a two-week period that includes the Sunday.
• Anyone who works on a public holiday falling on a working day gets a replacement rest day within eight weeks.
• The replacement rest day should follow directly on from an eleven-hour rest period, where operations allow it (section 11(4) ArbZG).

The record-keeping duty: seven days, two years

The restaurant and accommodation trade is listed in section 2a SchwarzArbG. As a result, section 17 MiLoG applies to employees, not only to mini-jobbers: the start, end and duration of daily working time must be recorded by the end of the seventh calendar day after the working day and kept for at least two years.

The minimum wage documentation ordinance exempts two groups: employees with a regular monthly salary above 4,461 euros gross, or above 2,974 euros if it has demonstrably been paid for twelve full months, and spouses, registered partners, children and parents of the employer working in the business (section 1 MiLoDokV).

Today the law prescribes no form, so a paper sheet is allowed. It has to be complete, though, and that is exactly where it fails in practice when shifts are swapped or extended and the sheet is only filled in at the end of the month.

1. Inform every person in writing that they must carry their ID at work, and keep this notice (section 2a(1) and (2) SchwarzArbG).
2. Record the start, end and duration of every shift within seven calendar days at the latest, breaks included.
3. Keep the records available in Germany and in German, at the place of work too if customs asks for it (section 17(2) MiLoG).
4. Keep the records for two years. Section 16(2) ArbZG requires the same for working time beyond eight hours per working day.

Trainees and temps under 18

For young people the Youth Employment Protection Act applies, and it is stricter than the Working Hours Act. Hospitality has its own exceptions there for the end of the working day, for Saturdays and for Sundays.

How often customs checks hospitality

In 2025 the customs Financial Monitoring Unit for Illicit Employment checked 25,765 employers nationwide. 5,726 of them were restaurants and accommodation businesses, more than in any other branch listed, just ahead of construction with 5,514. Of 298,255 persons checked, 74,490 worked in hospitality, roughly one in four.

During the priority check on 19 September 2025, 2,600 customs officers visited hotels and restaurants and questioned more than 5,200 employees. Customs reported about 2,200 cases with first indications of possible violations and just under 600 cases concerning the minimum wage. Since 1 January 2026 it has been 13.90 euros per hour.

The Minijob-Zentrale's quarterly report for the second quarter of 2026 lists 951,078 mini-jobbers for hospitality. Section 17 MiLoG applies to them in any case, in every industry.

Roster and time tracking in one system

In MetronHR employees clock in via the app, in the browser or at the terminal with an NFC card, without a private phone. The time is in the system to the minute on the same day, without rounding, and so meets the seven-day deadline on day one.

In the roster of the Professional plan, MetronHR reports before publication when less than the configured rest period lies between two shifts; whether a shortened rest period under section 5(2) ArbZG is compensated is your decision. MetronHR can keep replacement rest days for Sunday and public holiday work as a claim with a deadline once the work is recorded. At the end of the month, hours, night, Sunday and public holiday hours per person are in the monthly Excel overview and in the payroll file for DATEV, and the tax adviser calculates the premiums.