ROUTE

Overtime in Germany: proving it, getting paid, meeting the deadline

When extra hours may be demanded, how to prove them, money versus time off, and why the claim lapses sooner than you expect.

✓ Checked: 11/08/2026

Overtime in Germany works differently from how it sounds in break-room conversation. There is no general duty to work longer than agreed: it arises from the contract, a collective agreement, a works agreement, or a genuine emergency. What does exist is a hard health-and-safety frame — eight hours per working day, up to ten with averaging over six months — and the employer duty to record everything beyond eight hours and keep the records for two years. The problem is almost never whether money is owed, but the evidence and the deadline.

1

STEP

Establish whether you have to work overtime at all

There is no general duty to work beyond the agreed hours. A basis is needed — the contract, a collective agreement, a works agreement, or a genuine emergency.
2

STEP

Make the hours provable

An overtime dispute rarely fails on the law and almost always on the records. The law obliges the employer to record hours beyond eight — you still need your own notes.
3

STEP

Money or time off: how overtime is compensated

German law knows no single overtime rate. It knows a different rule: work that in the circumstances can only be expected against payment must be paid.
4

STEP

Check the deadline after which the claim lapses

This is where the money is usually lost. The general limitation period is three years, but contracts and collective agreements normally set a far shorter exclusion period.
5

STEP

Demand payment and decide about court

The path is short: a written claim with figures, then the labour court if refused. Its peculiarity: in the first instance each side pays for its own lawyer.

COSTS AND DEADLINES

Deadlines you cannot miss

The employer keeps records of hours beyond eight for at least two yearsMake the hours provablehard deadline
General limitation period: three yearsCheck the deadline after which the claim lapseshard deadline
Contractual and collective exclusion periods are often three months — read your own textCheck the deadline after which the claim lapseshard deadline

Amounts follow official fees as of each step’s verification date. Your city may charge a different rate — check the step itself.

› More about this route

This route works through the whole chain: when extra hours may be demanded of you at all and where the statutory limits run, how to build evidence that holds up in court, what determines money versus time off and why the covered by salary clause does not always survive, which exclusion period sits in your contract and why it is more dangerous than the three-year limitation, and how enforcement runs up to the conciliation hearing. We do not assess your particular situation and promise no outcome — the route shows how the dispute is built and where money quietly disappears.

WHERE PEOPLE MOST OFTEN LOSE MONEY AND TIME

Saving up hours for better times. The exclusion period in the contract is often three months and kills the claim regardless of how right you are.
Relying on the employer records. Recording and keeping them for two years is their duty — but if they are missing, you still have to set out the days concretely.
Assuming overtime is prohibited. What is prohibited is exceeding the working time limits, not working longer with averaging.
Going to court without costing it. In first-instance labour court proceedings your own lawyer costs are not reimbursed even if you win.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ROUTE

Who is this route for?▾

Employees whose hours balance keeps growing, and anyone leaving a company with unsettled overtime. Managers benefit from the mirror view: which records and clauses will have to be produced in the end.

How does this differ from a holiday dispute?▾

Holiday follows its own statute with its own deadlines and carry-over rules. Overtime is about remuneration for work already done, governed by the contract, collective agreements and general limitation.

Does this apply to mini-jobs and part-time work?▾

Working time limits and the recording duty do not depend on how many hours you work. What differs is calculating the hourly rate and the effect on mini-job thresholds — which is where careful arithmetic pays.

What if I stayed longer of my own accord?▾

The key phrase in the case law is instructed or tolerated. Work the manager knew about and accepted normally counts; initiative nobody noticed almost never does.

WHAT USUALLY COMES NEXT

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