Germany has no nationwide 1.5x overtime premium. Everhour keeps approved hours organized before payroll review.
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A Germany overtime calculation answers two different questions: how many extra paid hours exist, and what premium applies to those hours. The Arbeitszeitgesetz (ArbZG), Germany's Working Time Act, sets working-time limits, rest breaks, rest periods, night-work protections, and Sunday/public-holiday work limits. It does not create a nationwide time-and-a-half rule.
That distinction matters when you check payroll. Germany's statutory baseline is eight hours per working day under ArbZG section 3, extendable up to ten hours only if the average over six calendar months or 24 weeks does not exceed eight hours per working day. Pay for extra hours normally comes from the employment contract, collective agreement, or works agreement.
Start with paid standard hours, the hourly rate, approved extra hours, and the applicable premium. If the agreement says overtime is paid at 125%, multiply extra hours by 1.25. If it grants time off instead of cash, the pay calculation changes because the extra work creates compensatory time rather than an added wage line.
Example: an employee earns €28 per hour, has 40 standard paid hours, and works 4 approved extra hours under a contract that pays those hours at 125%. Standard pay is 40 × €28 = €1,120. Overtime pay is 4 × €28 × 1.25 = €140. Total gross pay for those hours is €1,260.
Do not treat 1.5x or 2x as German statutory defaults. Use those multipliers only when they come from the contract, collective agreement, works agreement, or employer policy. Germany's legal control point is working time: the ordinary average cap is effectively 48 hours per week across a six-day working week because Sunday is generally protected as the weekly rest day.
Also check daily compliance signals before finalizing the number. Work over six and up to nine hours requires at least 30 minutes of breaks; work over nine hours requires at least 45 minutes. Employees must receive at least eleven uninterrupted hours of rest after the daily working period. These rules do not set the premium, but they affect whether the schedule itself is compliant.
A one-off calculator is enough when you need to price a single week, confirm a contract multiplier, or explain a payroll line to an employee. It is not enough when extra hours need manager approval, break review, Sunday or public-holiday checks, or a retained record of who approved what before payroll.
Germany also has a recordkeeping requirement for working time exceeding the eight-hour daily baseline, with records retained for at least two years. BMAS also notes the BAG's 2022 ruling requiring a system for recording total employee working time. Everhour Timesheets support that operational handoff by collecting weekly project and working hours, then letting admins approve, reject, partially approve, and lock submitted time.
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No. Germany does not set a fixed nationwide 1.5x or 2x overtime premium. Overtime pay or time off is normally governed by the employment contract, collective agreement, or works agreement. BGB section 612 can support implied or usual remuneration where pay is expected.
Use the ArbZG baseline of eight hours per working day. Daily working time can extend up to ten hours only if the average over six calendar months or 24 weeks does not exceed eight hours per working day. That is a working-time limit, not an automatic pay premium.
Use 48 hours as the normal average weekly cap, not as a pay trigger. Germany's baseline is eight hours per working day, and Sunday is generally protected as the weekly rest day, which makes the normal average cap effectively 48 hours across a six-day working week.
The common mistake is importing a foreign time-and-a-half rule into a Germany payroll check. A German calculation needs the actual premium from the contract, collective agreement, works agreement, or policy. If none is stated, do not enter 1.5x as a statutory default.
Yes, for schedule review. Work over six and up to nine hours requires at least 30 minutes of breaks, and work over nine hours requires at least 45 minutes. Employees also need at least eleven uninterrupted hours of rest after the daily working period, with limited sector exceptions requiring compensating rest.
Everhour Timesheets collect weekly project hours and working hours so managers can review time before payroll or billing. Employees submit time, and admins can approve, reject, partially approve, and lock entries after review.
Track approved weekly hours before payroll review. Everhour Timesheets give teams submitted, reviewed, and locked time records that support a cleaner overtime handoff.
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