Remaining vacation: how to calculate your vacation entitlement

What makes up your vacation entitlement? 

In most cases, how much vacation an employee is entitled to differs from company to company. By law, however, the German Federal Leave Act (Bundesurlaubsgesetz) prescribes a minimum of 24 days' vacation based on a 6-day week. The minimum entitlement is distributed across the working days per week accordingly: 

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On top of this statutory vacation, employees often receive further vacation days from their employer, which are set out in the employment contract. This makes the job more attractive for the employee and gives the employer higher employee satisfaction. 

When does remaining vacation arise? 

Remaining vacation can arise for two reasons: either the employee was unable to take their vacation days within the calendar year for personal or operational reasons, or the employment relationship ends during the current calendar year. 

Carrying remaining vacation over from the following year

Under the German Federal Leave Act, remaining vacation may only be carried over if personal or operational reasons meant that the full vacation could not be taken in the previous year. Personal reasons include illness, for example. Remaining vacation can arise for operational reasons if, say, vacation is not granted because of a staff shortage.

This remaining vacation must be taken by 31 March of the following year. 

A special case are employees in their probationary period, as there is generally no vacation entitlement during the first six months. After the first six months, however, the employee is free to take the vacation days they have accrued. So if the employment relationship starts in October, for example, the vacation days for the first three months are carried over into the following year. 

During maternity protection and parental leave there is likewise no vacation entitlement for the period an employee is absent. Remaining vacation from the time before that can, however, be carried over.

Remaining vacation when the employment relationship ends 

When an employment relationship ends, things get a little more complicated. Any outstanding remaining vacation must be taken during the notice period. If that is not possible, for example because of staffing bottlenecks, the vacation must be paid out. That means the remaining vacation is then paid out at the daily rate. 

How do I calculate remaining vacation?

To calculate remaining vacation, several factors matter: 

• the vacation entitlement (depending on the working days per week) 
• the vacation days already taken or booked in the calendar year 
• the months in employment within the calendar year 

Calculating remaining vacation - an example 

To make it a little clearer, we have worked through remaining vacation using a few examples: 

Example 1: calculating remaining vacation for the year ahead

Markus has handed in his notice with his current employer with effect from the end of May 2025. So in the 2025 calendar year he will work another four months for his old employer. He wants to know how much vacation he is still entitled to before his employment ends. For a full-time position on a five-day week, employees at his company receive 30 vacation days. Markus, however, is a working student and only works 20 hours a week over 4 days. Accordingly he has a lower vacation entitlement than his colleagues, namely 24. As the year has not yet started, he has not taken or booked any vacation. His calculation is as follows: 

So at the start of the year Markus can - and in fact must - still take 8 vacation days before his employment ends.  

Example 2: calculating remaining vacation up to the end of the year 

Lena wants to know how many vacation days she still has open before the end of the year. Her company grants 26 vacation days for a six-day week. She is a full-time employee and does work those six days a week. She has already taken 19 vacation days in 2024. Her calculation is as follows: 

So she still has 7 open vacation days that she has to take before the end of the year. 

Example 3: 

Helmut is retiring as of August 2025. At his company, vacation requests have to be submitted 6 months in advance. That is why he has already taken 15 days of his annual vacation entitlement of 30 vacation days for 2025. To work out how many vacation days he still has open before his employment ends, he uses the following calculation:

So Helmut still has 2.5 free vacation days for 2025 that he has to take before he retires.