In 2024, a worker in Germany worked 1,331 hours on average. That was fewer than in any other OECD country. The OECD average was 1,736 hours. The German Economic Institute points out that countries measure working time in different ways. It also looked at the figure per person of working age, which takes account of how many people work. By that measure, Germany worked 1,031 hours in 2022, almost 200 hours below the OECD average.
The Four-Day Week Trial
From the start of 2024, 45 organizations in Germany tested a four-day week for six months. The University of Münster led the study, under Professor Julia Backmann. Employees reported less stress and fewer symptoms of burnout. Productivity stayed the same or rose slightly. More than 70 percent of the organizations said they wanted to continue after the trial.
Clubs and Volunteers
In 2022, the German registers of associations listed 615,759 associations. Sport is the largest field, with 22 percent of all civil society organizations. In 2024, 36.7 percent of people aged 14 and over did voluntary work, about 27 million people. In 2019, the share had been 39.7 percent. Almost a quarter of volunteers give three to five hours a week.
Holiday Money
On a five-day week, the Federal Leave Act gives 20 days of leave a year. Collective agreements, with few exceptions, give 30. Many employees also receive Urlaubsgeld, holiday money, an extra payment for the holiday. In an online survey by the WSI institute published in 2026, 73 percent of employees with a collective agreement received it, and 35 percent of those without one. In the collective agreements the institute examined, the amounts range from 186 euros in agriculture in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to 2,904 euros for salaried employees in the wood and plastics industry of Westphalia-Lippe.
The Vocabulary of the Working Day
Mahlzeit!
Mealtime! The greeting colleagues give each other around midday.
Brückentag
Bridge day. A single working day between two days off, such as a public holiday and the weekend. Duden notes that it is especially suited to taking as a day of leave.
Feierabendbier
The beer after the end of the working day.
Work-Life-Balance
The English term is in the Duden as a German noun. It is defined as a balanced relationship between the demands of the job and a person’s private needs.
The vocabulary of the boundary
Dienst ist Dienst und Schnaps ist Schnaps — duty is duty and schnapps is schnapps. Two things, not to be mixed.
Nach Feierabend — after the working day, used as a time of day in its own right.
Urlaubsanspruch — holiday claim. Not an allowance or an entitlement in the soft sense. A claim, in the legal meaning, enforceable.
Abschalten — to switch off. What a German is expected to do at the end of the day, and the metaphor is electrical.
The prescribed cure
A German physician can prescribe a Kur — a multi-week stay at a spa or rehabilitation clinic, substantially funded by the health or pension insurance. Exhaustion is treated as a medical condition with an institutional remedy, and the time away does not come out of holiday entitlement.
The company shutdown
Betriebsferien. Many German companies close entirely for a fixed period, commonly in summer or between Christmas and New Year, with the works council agreeing the dates. Nobody is covering. Nobody is on call. The building is shut.
Parental leave
Elternzeit. German parents may take up to three years of leave per child, with the job protected and dismissal prohibited for the duration. It may be split, shared between parents, and partly deferred until the child is eight.
The shop closing law
German shop opening hours were governed by federal law from 1956, and Sunday closing remains the rule across the country. Shops are shut. Not quiet — shut. A Sunday in a German town is a different kind of day, enforced by statute.