HR-Glossar

Höchstarbeitszeit (maximum working time)

How the German Working Time Act caps hours per working day, why there is no opt-out and why the rest period is breached more often than the maximum.

1. What is Höchstarbeitszeit (maximum working time)?

The German Working Time Act (*Arbeitszeitgesetz*, ArbZG) limits how long may be worked at a stretch and in total. Its purpose is occupational safety – the rules serve health, not pay.

Section 3 ArbZG sets the limit per working day, and this is where most accounts become imprecise: the Act does not speak of a working week. It caps working time at eight hours per working day and permits an extension to ten hours provided that, within a balancing period, an average of eight hours per working day is not exceeded. Because Saturday counts as a working day, the frequently quoted weekly maximum follows only as a calculation.

Alongside the maximum duration stand two further limits that are breached more often in practice: the rest breaks under Section 4 ArbZG and the rest period of eleven hours in principle between two working days under Section 5 ArbZG.

Readers coming from the UK should note one point at the outset: German law has no individual opt-out. The limits cannot be exceeded by agreement, however willing both sides are.

2. Origin and development

Limiting working time is the oldest form of occupational safety. Its starting point was not pay but the recognition that excessive working time causes illness and accidents – a finding occupational medicine has confirmed many times since.

That origin explains two properties that regularly surprise people in day-to-day practice. First, the limits are mandatory: they cannot be exceeded by agreement, not even consensually and not even against additional pay. Second, they apply irrespective of whether the work is paid – unpaid extra work or emails answered in the evening count too.

The case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union has added a dimension of proof to this protective purpose: it held that member states must oblige employers to set up a system for recording daily working time. Without a record, compliance with the limits can be neither checked nor enforced – the protection would be worthless in practice.

3. Core principles and how it works

Per working day, not per week

Section 3 ArbZG caps working-day time at eight hours, extendable to ten with balancing. Working days run Monday to Saturday – the weekly maximum follows from that, it is not itself in the Act.

A balancing period rather than a daily view

The extension to ten hours is permitted only where an average of eight hours per working day is kept within the balancing period. Looking at the single day means checking the wrong thing.

Eleven hours of rest

Under Section 5 ArbZG an uninterrupted rest period of eleven hours in principle must follow the end of work. It is breached more often than the maximum duration – for instance where work continues in the evening and starts early the next morning.

Rest breaks are not working time

Section 4 ArbZG requires breaks after a given period of work, fixed in advance. An interruption that can be ended by work at any moment is not a break.

Mandatory and independent of pay

The limits cannot be agreed away, and they apply regardless of whether the time is paid. Unpaid extra work counts too. There is no individual opt-out of the kind UK law provides.

Derogations only within the statutory frame

Section 7 ArbZG permits derogations by collective agreement, or by works agreement on the basis of one – not by employment contract. Without collective coverage the room for manoeuvre is narrow.

The duty to record

Working time is to be recorded. Without a record, compliance can be neither managed nor evidenced – and in a dispute that counts against the employer.

4. Who is Höchstarbeitszeit (maximum working time) relevant for?

- All employers – the ArbZG applies regardless of size and sector. - Businesses with shift and rotating shift work – for them the rest period and the balancing period are the critical figures. - Managers – they direct working time and are personally liable for breaches. - Employees working from home – there the end of work and the rest period blur particularly easily. - Works councils – the timing and distribution of working time are subject to co-determination.

5. How it differs from related terms

- Working Time Act and employment contract – the contract governs the agreed working time and its pay, the ArbZG the permissible maximum. The two have nothing to do with each other. - Maximum working time and overtime pay – whether extra work is to be paid follows from the contract and any collective agreement. The ArbZG says nothing about it. - Working time and on-call arrangements – standby from home is in principle not working time, on-site standby duty is. The distinction decides whether the limits are kept. - Working time and travel time – the journey to the first place of work is not working time; travel between assignment locations generally is. - ArbZG and the Youth Employment Protection Act – separate, tighter limits apply to young people.

6. Variants and adaptations

Exceptions and special rules are narrowly drawn:

- Senior executives – under Section 18 ArbZG they fall outside the Act. The term is, however, considerably narrower than the way it is used inside a company, and it is not the equivalent of an "exempt" classification in US practice. - Collective derogations – Section 7 ArbZG permits extended maxima, shortened rest periods and longer balancing periods, but only by or on the basis of a collective agreement. - On-site standby duty – counts as working time even where no work arises. Longer periods are permissible only under a collective agreement. - Emergencies and exceptional cases – Section 14 ArbZG allows temporary derogations; the provision is regularly read too widely. - Hospitals and care – Section 5 ArbZG permits a shortened rest period there, with compensation.

7. Advantages and challenges

Advantages

  • Protects health and lowers accident risk — the evidenced purpose of the rules
  • Clear, mandatory limits give both sides something to go by
  • The balancing period allows flexibility without lasting overload
  • Collective opening clauses make sector-appropriate solutions possible
  • The duty to record makes workload visible instead of hiding it

Challenges

  • In daily practice the rest period is breached more often than the maximum, mostly unnoticed
  • Trust-based working time and mobile work make compliance considerably harder
  • The concept of the senior executive is read far too widely
  • Without collective coverage the scope for derogation is very limited
  • Breaches carry fines and, on repetition, criminal liability, and they hit managers personally
  • The working-day basis is regularly replaced by a weekly one — and the calculation then goes wrong

8. Best practices for implementation

Monitor the rest period technically

Eleven hours between the end of work and its resumption. A late email and an early meeting are enough for a breach. An automatic check finds what nobody is looking at.

Calculate per working day, not per week

The balancing is measured against the average working-day time in the balancing period. A weekly view leads systematically to wrong results.

Draw the circle of senior executives narrowly

Section 18 ArbZG means a very small group with genuine entrepreneurial decision-making power. Taking out whole management layers misreads the exception – and carries liability. A classification that works in another jurisdiction does not transfer.

Regulate availability expressly

Without a rule, working time arises that nobody ordered and that counts all the same. A policy on availability and the rest period protects both sides.

Classify on-site standby duty correctly

It counts as working time. Treating it like standby from home breaches the limits systematically.

9. Tips for employers and employees

For employers

  • **The rest period is the most frequent breach** – Section 5 ArbZG, eleven uninterrupted hours
  • **Calculate per working day** – Section 3 ArbZG knows no weekly maximum
  • **Derogations only by collective agreement** – Section 7 ArbZG, not through the employment contract
  • **Managers are personally liable** – breaches carry fines and possibly criminal sanctions

For employees

  • **The limits apply to unpaid work too** – pay is a separate question
  • **You are entitled to eleven hours of rest** – including when working from home
  • **Record your working hours** – in a dispute your record is the starting point
  • **No waiver is possible** – the limits cannot be exceeded by mutual consent

10. Conclusion

The Working Time Act serves occupational safety, not pay – and from that follow its two most surprising properties: the limits are mandatory and they apply regardless of whether the time is paid.

One imprecision is persistent. Section 3 ArbZG caps working-day time, not weekly time. Because Saturday is a working day, the frequently quoted weekly limit follows only as a calculation. Checking weekly rather than per working day produces systematically wrong results, particularly for the balancing period.

In practice, though, it is not the maximum duration that is breached most often but the rest period under Section 5 ArbZG. A late reply to an email and an early meeting the next morning are enough, and without a technical check neither of them is noticed by anyone. That is exactly where working time recording earns its keep, which the Court of Justice of the European Union considers the member states obliged to require.

For an international group, two assumptions are worth discarding before anything else. There is no individual opt-out from the German limits, as UK law provides for the weekly maximum. And Section 18 ArbZG is not an exempt classification: it covers a very small group with real entrepreneurial authority, so a US-style exempt/non-exempt split applied to a German workforce will put people outside the Act who are in fact inside it.

A note on sources: there is no official English version of the Working Time Act (checked on 2026-09-26); the German text is cited below and its wording governs.

Sources

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