Working Hours Act The Debate Over the Eight-Hour Workday: These Are the Biggest Myths About Working Hours

Do you enjoy working 12-hour shifts? If you answer “Yes!” to this question, you might soon have reason to celebrate. The federal government wants to abolish the maximum daily working hours—usually eight hours. Instead, there will be a weekly limit.

Supporters of this idea say that more flexibility in working hours is good for both companies and employees. But is that really true?

Let’s fact-check the myths:

Claim: “Employees want to work longer hours”

Fact: There’s hardly any evidenceto support this claim. There may be people who are happy to work 12 or 14 hours so they can have extra days off. But that’s certainly not the norm. A scientificsurvey shows that 73 percent of employees are against unlimited daily working hours. 84 percent agree with the statement that a clear limit protects against overwork .

Claim: “12-hour shifts aren’t a problem for your health”

Fact: Working without limits makes people sick. Excessively long working hours put a strain on both the body and the mind. The risk of illness, accidents, and sleep disorders increases significantly after eight hours. The eight-hour workday protects employees’ health. It is based on findings from occupational medicine. This is why courts repeatedly emphasize that the Working Hours Act is a measure to protect health.

Claim: “People work too little in Germany”

Fact:Comparisons with other countries are often misleading. Example: A statistic from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that is frequently cited. The statistic shows the average number of hours employees work per year. Germany ranks low in this regard. However, it’s important to note that the OECDitself points out that the data is not suitable for comparing countries in specific years.

To assess how much work is done in Germany, other figures are important. For example, thevolume of work—that is, the total number of hours worked. In 2025, people in Germany worked around 61 billion hours. This figure is close to its all-time high.

The number of people in the workforce in Germany has also reached record highs in recent years. From just under 43 million in 2014, the figure rose to around 46 million. In 2025, it remained at a historically high level.

Both figures stem from the same underlying trend: More women are working today than in the past. However, nearly half of all employed women work part-time—often involuntarily, for example, due to a lack of childcare. The high proportion of part-time workers lowers the average number of working hours per capita.

In addition, employees in Germany workhundreds of millions of hours of overtime every year. More than half of these hours are unpaid.

Claim: “Working longer hours boosts the economy”

Eliminate a holiday + extend working hours = economic growth. That’s how simple some people imagine it to be. This has little to do with the reality of a modern economy.

Companies schedule the processing of their orders so that they are completed on weekdays whenever possible. The industrial sector is currently facing a shortage of orders—and thus, in many places, a shortage of work as well. Fewer public holidays would do nothing to change the poor order situation. In some industries, eliminating public holidays would result in a decline in business. For example, in tourism and the restaurant industry.

Overall, there isno evidencethat eliminating public holidays boosts economic output.

Abolishing the eight-hour workday as the norm could even be counterproductive: Because excessively long workdays can lead to illness, there might ultimately be fewer—rather than more—workers available.

Fundamentally, it is not the length of working hours that matters, butproductivity—that is, how much prosperity is created per hour worked. To achieve high productivity, we need investments in the future, good working conditions, and quality education and training. There is enormous untapped potential, especially in the latter area: Nearly three million young people under the age of 35do not have a vocational qualification.

Claim: “The German Working Hours Act is inflexible”

Fact:The Working Hours Act already offers a great deal of flexibility. It allows for 10-hour workdays, as long as this overtime is compensated for within six months. Even 12-hour workdays are possible for certain industries and jobs. Collective bargaining agreements also offer a wide range of optionsfor flexibly regulating working hours. Unions and works councils ensure that employees’ interests are taken into account—and that working hours are not dictated unilaterally by the employer.

Claim: “The EU Working Time Directive provides more than enough protection”

Fact:The so-calledEU Working Time Directivelimits weekly working hours to 48 hours. There is no direct limit on daily working hours; instead, it requires only a daily rest period of at least eleven consecutive hours. Workdays could last up to twelve hours and 15 minutes. From anoccupational healthperspective, thisclearlyposes a health riskto employees.

Claim: “The eight-hour workday keeps parents from working.”

Drop the child off at daycare, work, pick up the child, take care of them, and put them to bed—and then continue working until midnight. This is supposedly how many parents envision their daily routine. Aside from the fact that this only works for desk jobs, the reality for most families looks quite different. Ninety-seven percent of employees want to finish work at 6 p.m. if possible.

Fragmented workdays—for example, continuing to work in the evening after a long break—lead to stressand short rest periods. Very few people find this fulfilling. For most, it’s a stopgap solution.

Ending the eight-hour workday won’t help much here. Much more important would be better child care and ways to escape the“part-time trap.”