Vacation Days in Germany 2026: Minimum, Carry-Over and Payout

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Vacation Days in Germany: Minimum, Carry-Over and Payout

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20 days are the floor. Here is how yours add up

The law guarantees four weeks of paid vacation a year: 20 days on a five-day week, 24 on six. Contracts often add more. This guide shows how the minimum scales with your working week, what happens in your first six months, when unused days carry over or expire, and how they are paid out when you leave.

Written by

Janine El-Saghir

Reviewed by

Erkan Boga

Edited by

Sadie Voss

Updated on 05 November 2026

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Vacation days in Germany: at a glance

The minimum is four weeks a year: 20 days on a five-day week, 24 on a six-day week. Public holidays come on top.
First six months: one twelfth of the year’s days for every full month, the full entitlement after six months.
Expiry: unused days carry into the next year only for urgent reasons and must be taken by 31 March. They expire only if your employer asked you to take them and warned you in time.

German vacation law sets a floor and leaves the rest to your contract. Most questions are arithmetic: how many days this year, how many after starting in May, how many are paid out when leaving in August. The vacation days calculator does that arithmetic for your dates. The rules behind it are below.

The legal minimum by working week

The law counts every day that is not a Sunday or a public holiday as a working day and grants 24 of them a year. For your actual working week that means four weeks of leave:

Statutory minimum vacation per year by days worked per week
Days worked per week	Minimum vacation days per year
6	24
5	20
4	16
3	12
2	8
1	4
Source: Federal Vacation Act (24 working days on a six-day week); conversion to shorter weeks is arithmetic.

Your contract or a collective agreement can grant more, and many do. Neither can grant less. A clause below the minimum is void, and so is any deal that trades the minimum for money while you stay in the job.

Your first year

The full entitlement is earned after six months in the job. Until then you have one twelfth of the annual days for each full month, and fractions from half a day upwards round up to a whole day. Example on 20 days a year: you start on 1 May. By 31 August four full months are done, which is 6.67 days, so 7. From 1 November, the six-month mark, the full 20 days stand for that year. If a job starts after 1 July, the six months end only in the following year, so the first calendar year yields one twelfth per month and those days carry over on request.

Days your previous employer already granted you for the same calendar year are deducted. The old employer has to give you a certificate of the days taken, and the new one will ask for it.

Who decides when you go

You ask, the employer grants. The employer may refuse a date only for urgent operational reasons or because colleagues with stronger social reasons want the same days. Vacation is meant to be taken in one block. If it is split, one part should cover at least twelve consecutive working days once you have more than twelve. Public holidays and certified sick days inside your vacation are not deducted from it.

Carry-over and expiry

Vacation belongs to the calendar year. It carries into the next year only for urgent operational or personal reasons, and then it has to be taken by 31 March. There is one condition the law does not spell out but Germany’s Federal Labor Court does, following European law: your days expire only if the employer asked you during the year to take them and told you clearly that they would otherwise be lost. Without that warning the days carry over. The court added in 2022 that the usual three-year limitation period does not even start running until the warning is given. If you have old days, ask for them in writing and keep the answer.

Vacation pay

During vacation you receive your normal pay, calculated from the average of the 13 weeks before the vacation, without overtime pay. It is due before the vacation starts. An extra vacation bonus (Urlaubsgeld) is not in the law. It exists where a contract or collective agreement grants it.

Leaving the job

Days you cannot take because the job ends are paid out with the final salary. How many days are yours depends on when you leave. In the first six months, one twelfth per full month. After six months but in the first half of the calendar year, again one twelfth per month of that year, and if you have already taken more than that, the employer cannot reclaim the pay. After six months and in the second half of the year, the full annual minimum. Two examples on 20 days: leaving on 31 May after several years gives 8 days, leaving on 31 August gives all 20. Contracts may set other rules for days above the legal minimum. The steps before your last day: resigning in Germany.

Public holidays

Nine public holidays apply nationwide: New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, 1 May, Ascension Day, Whit Monday, 3 October, Christmas Day and 26 December. Each state adds its own. On a public holiday you would have worked, the employer pays your normal wage, and the day is not taken from your vacation. For bridge days and the holidays of your state, use the working days calculator.

Bottom line

Put your dates into the vacation days calculator before you book time off or hand in your notice. Holding old days from earlier years? Ask for them in writing, because they may still be yours.

Part of working in Germany. Related: sick leave · your first six months · vacation in the contract.

Frequently Asked Questions

Not because of the probation as such. The days you have earned by then are yours to request, and the employer can refuse a date only for urgent operational reasons or because of colleagues with stronger claims to the same dates. Many companies still ask new staff to wait, so raise it before you book.

It depends on how many days a week you work, not on your hours. Four days a week give at least 16 days a year, three days give 12, and someone working short days on all five weekdays keeps the full 20. If your contract grants more than the minimum, the extra days scale the same way unless it says otherwise.

Only when the job ends. While you are employed, the minimum vacation has to be taken as time off, and an agreement to pay it out instead is not valid. Days above the legal minimum follow your contract.

If you leave in the first half of the year after at least six months of employment, the employer cannot ask for the pay of those extra days back. In other cases the contract decides whether an overpayment is settled with the final salary, so check the vacation clause before you set your last day.

Sources and legal basis (as of 4 November 2026)

Sources and legal basis (as of 4 November 2026)

Federal Vacation Act (Bundesurlaubsgesetz), § 1: paid vacation every calendar year; § 3: 24 working days, working days are all days except Sundays and public holidays; § 13: no reduction of the minimum by contract or collective agreement.
Federal Vacation Act, § 4: full entitlement after six months; § 5: one twelfth per full month, rounding, no reclaim of pay for extra days when leaving in the first half of the year; § 6: days granted by a previous employer in the same year are deducted, certificate from the old employer.
Federal Vacation Act, § 7: timing, one block of at least twelve working days, carry-over to 31 March, payout when the job ends; § 9: certified sick days are not deducted; § 11: vacation pay from the last 13 weeks, due before the vacation.
Federal Labor Court, judgment of 19 February 2019, 9 AZR 541/15: vacation expires only if the employer has asked the employee to take it and warned of the expiry.
Federal Labor Court, judgment of 20 December 2022, 9 AZR 266/20: the limitation period for the minimum vacation starts only after that request and warning.
Continued Remuneration Act (Entgeltfortzahlungsgesetz), § 2: pay for public holidays.
German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), public holidays 2026: the nine holidays that apply in every state (in German). Public holidays are set by state law.

Further sources (retrieved on 4 November 2026). The table for shorter working weeks and the examples (7 days after four months, 8 days when leaving on 31 May, 20 when leaving on 31 August) are our own calculations from the Act.

Vacation Days in Germany: Minimum, Carry-Over and Payout