Vacation Pay in 2026 More vacation days and extra money for travel with a collective bargaining agreement

Not everyone in this country gets to enjoy vacation pay. Less than half (44 percent) of all employees are that lucky—as determined by a new analysis from the collective bargaining archive of the Institute for Economic and Social Research (WSI) at the Hans Böckler Foundation.

Whether and how much vacation pay is provided depends, among other things, on the region, industry, company size, and work experience. In western Germany, vacation pay is still higher in many industries than in eastern Germany. And the larger the company, the more likely employees are to receive vacation pay. The longer one’s career, the greater the chance of receiving it.

Better Chances of Extra Vacation Pay Under Collective Bargaining Agreements

There is no doubt that employees benefit from additional vacation pay if their company is bound by a collective bargaining agreement. According to the WSI Collective Bargaining Archive, this applies to 73 percent of employees. In contrast, only 35 percent of employees whose companies are not bound by collective bargaining agreements can look forward to vacation pay. The amount of these collective bargaining-based bonuses varies greatly depending on the industry. This year, the range for vacation pay in the middle pay grade is between 186 and 2,904 euros.

The highest payments go to employees covered by IG Metall collective bargaining agreements in the wood and plastics processing industries, the metal and electrical industries, and the automotive sector. As a rule, the vacation bonus amounts to 50 percent of average earnings in the industries covered by IG Metall collective bargaining agreements.

Six Weeks to Relax

And don’t forget: metalworkers are entitled to 30 days of vacation per year. This isn’t a given everywhere. By law, only 24 days are required—and even then, only for employees who work six days a week. For a five-day workweek, the law requires employers to grant their employees as few as 20 days off.

Six weeks—that’s how long metalworkers in the steel industry went on strike in 1978 and 1979 to demand more vacation time. The result was a phased plan that ultimately led to 30 days of vacation, a provision that has been enshrined in IG Metall collective bargaining agreements since 1981.

Analysis of the WSI Collective Bargaining Archive on Vacation Pay in 2025