Germany guarantees every employee a generous floor of paid leave — but the rules on accrual, carry-over, and payout on termination are full of traps that catch foreign employees in particular.
Your statutory minimum
The Federal Vacation Act (Bundesurlaubsgesetz, BUrlG) gives every employee a minimum of 24 working days of paid vacation per calendar year, based on a 6-day working week. For the standard 5-day week this translates to 20 working days — four full weeks of paid leave.
This is a floor. Most German contracts grant 25–30 days. Senior or in-demand professionals often negotiate higher.
When does the full annual entitlement vest?
Your full annual entitlement vests after six months of employment (the “Wartezeit”). Before that, you earn 1/12 of the annual entitlement per completed month worked.
Carry-over to the next year
By default, untaken vacation expires on 31 December. Two important exceptions:
Payout on termination (Urlaubsabgeltung)
If you leave the company with unused vacation, the employer must pay it out in cash (§ 7(4) BUrlG). The payout is based on the average gross daily salary over the last 13 weeks.
Sickness during vacation
Sick days during your vacation do not count as vacation days (§ 9 BUrlG). The protection only applies if you:
- Obtain a medical certificate (Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung) from day one of the illness;
- Inform your employer immediately, ideally the same day.