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Overtime is paid if ordered. Prove it, then claim it
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Janine El Saghir is an editor at How-to-Germany.com, where she specializes in the practical aspects of daily life and integration for expatriates. With years of...
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- Limits: eight hours a day, up to ten if the average over six months comes back to eight. At least eleven hours of rest between shifts, and Sundays off as a rule.
- Pay: there is no statutory overtime premium. Extra hours are working time and are paid at your normal rate when the employer ordered, approved or tolerated them, or the work could not be done without them.
- Clauses: “overtime is included in the salary” holds only if the contract says how many hours that covers. Without a number, the hours can be claimed.
Overtime in Germany comes down to two documents: your contract, which says whether and how extra hours are paid, and your own record of when you worked. Check what one hour of your time is worth with the hourly wage calculator, then read your overtime clause against the rules below.
Claiming unpaid hours: who pays the lawyer
Unpaid overtime is claimed first in writing from the employer, then at the labor court. In the first instance each side pays its own lawyer there, even the winner, so a claim over a few hundred euros can cost more than it brings in. Legal insurance with the employment module pays your lawyer, which turns a small claim into one worth making. Most policies have a waiting period of three months for employment matters, some six, and cover disputes that start after it. English-language service: Feather and Getsafe. Modules and exclusions: legal insurance in Germany.
The legal limits on working time
The working day is capped at eight hours. It may stretch to ten if the average over six calendar months or 24 weeks is back at eight. Breaks are fixed too: at least 30 minutes once you work more than six hours, 45 minutes beyond nine, which may be split into blocks of 15 minutes, and never more than six hours in a row without one. Between two working days you are entitled to eleven hours of uninterrupted rest. Sundays and public holidays are work-free as a rule, with exceptions the law lists for hospitals, hospitality, transport and similar sectors. Even there at least 15 Sundays a year must stay free, and whoever works a Sunday gets a substitute rest day within two weeks.
Your employer must record every hour you work beyond eight a day and keep those records for two years. You can ask to see them.
When overtime has to be paid
German law sets no overtime premium. Surcharges exist where a contract or a collective agreement grants them. What the law does say is that work is paid. Hours beyond your contractual time are working time and are owed at your normal hourly rate when your employer ordered them, approved them, knowingly let them happen, or when the work could not be finished without them. Germany’s Federal Labor Court confirmed in 2022 that you have to show those conditions when you claim, hour by hour. Time off instead of pay is possible where your contract or a works agreement provides for it. The minimum wage applies to every hour, overtime included.
Is your overtime clause valid?
| Clause | Status | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| “Up to 10 hours of overtime a month are included in the salary.” | Clear | The first 10 extra hours in a month are unpaid. From the 11th hour on, you can claim pay or time off. |
| “Necessary overtime is included in the salary.” | Not transparent | The Federal Labor Court ruled in 2010 that a clause without a number does not tell you what you owe. Hours worked under it can be claimed at your normal rate. |
| No overtime clause at all | The default applies | Hours ordered, approved or needed are paid at your normal rate. |
| “The employer may order overtime within the legal limits.” | Clear | You have to work the extra hours when ordered, and they are paid or compensated. The ten-hour ceiling and the rest periods still apply. |
| Sources: Federal Labor Court, judgments of 2010 and 2022; Civil Code on pay and on unfair contract terms. | ||
Document your hours
The employee who claims overtime has to show, day by day, when they worked and that the employer ordered, approved or needed the extra time. The employer’s records help, but the court expects your own account. Keep a simple log from your first week:
| Date | Start | End | Break | Hours beyond contract | Ordered or approved by | What was done |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tue 9 Mar 2027 | 08:30 | 19:15 | 0:45 | 2.0 | Team lead, email 8 Mar 16:40 | Quarter-end report for client X |
| Send yourself the log by email at the end of each month so the dates are fixed, and keep the messages in which the extra work was requested. | ||||||
How to get the hours paid
- Add up the hours per month from your log and compare them with your payslips and any time-off you received.
- Check your contract for a deadline for raising claims (Ausschlussfrist) and respect it. Independently of that, the ordinary limitation period is three years, counted from the end of the year in which the pay was due.
- Write to your employer: the months, the hours, the amount at your hourly rate and a date for payment. Attach the log and the requests.
- If nothing is paid, the claim goes to the labor court. With legal insurance the lawyer is covered. Without it, weigh the amount against the fees first.
Bottom line
Start your hour log now, whatever your clause says, because your own record carries the claim. Small amounts are worth pursuing mainly with legal insurance already in place. Without it, weigh the sum against the lawyer’s fees first.
Part of working in Germany. Related: the overtime clause in your contract · vacation days · sick leave.
Frequently Asked Questions
Only if your contract or a collective agreement provides for it. If it does, the written record of your terms has to state under which conditions overtime can be ordered. Where there is a works council, it has a say in temporary extensions of working hours.
Hours beyond your contractual time are paid at your normal hourly rate under the same conditions as for full-time staff: ordered, approved, tolerated or necessary. Whether a surcharge applies depends on your contract or collective agreement.
Not by law. The law gives you a substitute rest day, within two weeks for a Sunday and within eight weeks for a public holiday that fell on a weekday. Surcharges for Sunday and holiday work come from contracts and collective agreements.
If your contract and no collective agreement provide for overtime, you are not obliged to work it. Even where it is provided for, the limits stand: no more than ten hours a day, eleven hours of rest in between, and the six-month average of eight hours.
Sources and legal basis (as of 4 November 2026)
Sources and legal basis (as of 4 November 2026)
- Labor Court Act (Arbeitsgerichtsgesetz), § 12a: each side pays its own lawyer in the first instance.
- Working Hours Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz), § 3: eight hours, ten with compensation within six months; § 4: breaks; § 5: eleven hours of rest; § 9, § 10 and § 11: Sundays and public holidays, exceptions, 15 free Sundays, substitute rest days; § 16: the employer records hours beyond eight and keeps the records for two years.
- German Civil Code (BGB), § 612: pay is owed where work is only to be expected against pay; § 307: transparency of standard contract terms.
- Federal Labor Court, judgment of 4 May 2022, 5 AZR 359/21: the employee claiming overtime pay has to show the hours and that the employer ordered, approved or tolerated them or that they were necessary.
- Federal Labor Court, judgment of 1 September 2010, 5 AZR 517/09: the clause that necessary overtime is covered by the monthly salary is not transparent if the amount of overtime is unclear.
- Minimum Wage Act (Mindestlohngesetz), § 1: the minimum wage applies per hour worked.
- Act on Proof of Employment Conditions (Nachweisgesetz), § 2: the record states overtime pay and the conditions for ordering overtime.
- Works Constitution Act (Betriebsverfassungsgesetz), § 87: co-determination on temporary extensions of working hours.
- German Civil Code, § 195 and § 199: three-year limitation period from the end of the year in which the claim arose.
Further sources (retrieved on 4 November 2026). Legal insurance waiting periods: the providers’ product pages as documented on legal insurance in Germany. Product data: our own product database. The log template and its example row are our own.