Vacation Payout Calculator

When your employment ends and you can no longer take your vacation, it has to be paid out. That is written in Section 7(4) of the German Federal Leave Act (BUrlG) and is not a favour from your boss, it is your legal right. Yet almost nobody checks whether the figure on the final payslip is even correct. That is exactly what this calculator is for: enter how many vacation days you are contractually entitled to, how many you have already taken and your daily earnings, and get a transparent calculation.

The core is the pro-rata calculation under Section 5 BUrlG. If you join or leave mid-year, you do not get the full annual leave but one twelfth for every full month of employment. The calculator automatically detects a partial year, counts the full months between your start and departure date and rounds the entitlement cleanly. So you can see at a glance whether your payslip is withholding days.

The statutory minimum is built in too. Section 3 BUrlG guarantees 24 working days for a 6-day week, which equals 20 days for the usual 5-day week. Your contract may grant more but never less. The calculator always takes the higher value and adjusts it for part-time work to your ratio - whether you work three, four or five days a week.

The 6-month waiting period from Section 4 BUrlG is where many new joiners trip up. Only after half a year at the company does the full annual entitlement arise. If you leave before that, the strict one-twelfth rule applies. The calculator shows a clear notice as soon as this waiting period is not yet met, so you do not walk into a negotiation with wrong expectations.

Twelve ready-made example scenarios cover the typical cases: mid-year resignation, exit during probation, retirement, return from parental leave, mutual termination agreement, mini-job, fixed-term contract and more. One click fills all fields with realistic values that you then adjust to your situation. That way you understand the mechanics without starting from scratch.

For the payout itself the tool also calculates a rough net estimate. Vacation payout is subject to tax and social contributions like normal pay, so less remains net than the gross amount suggests. The estimate uses simplified average rates and is deliberately conservative - for the exact net amount with your tax class you belong in the net salary calculator. This figure is orientation, not a payslip.

Everything runs in your browser. No salary data travels to a server, nothing is stored, no signup required. That matters because these are sensitive numbers - your daily earnings and departure date say a lot about you. These details stay on your device.