Earnings received - Which employees are eligible for holiday pay?
In the private sector, roughly half of the employees received vacation pay during the summer, just like in the previous year. This finding was revealed by a survey conducted by the salary comparison website Lohnspiegel.de, managed by the Economic and Social Research Institute (WSI) of the Hans Böckler Foundation. The percentage hasn't fluctuated too much, as it was 47% in 2023 and now stands at 46%.
The employees typically receive their vacation money along with their June or July salary, according to the WSI in Dusseldorf. For the analysis, the statements of nearly 68,000 workers from early May 2023 to the end of May 2024 were examined.
Presence of a collective bargaining agreement significantly influences whether or not employees receive vacation pay. According to the WSI, around three-quarters (74%) of the employees in companies with collective bargaining agreements in the private sector received vacation pay. In businesses without collective bargaining agreements, it was only 36%.
WSI: Fewer collective bargaining agreements
The prevalence of collective bargaining agreements in Germany has been decreasing significantly since the 1990s. As per the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), only about half of all employees (49%) currently have such agreements. In the private sector alone, the rate is down to 42%.
The amount of vacation pay employees receive depends on the specific terms of their collective bargaining agreements. This year, vacation pay ranges from 186 euros for employees in the agricultural sector in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to 2,686 euros in the wood and plastic processing industry, according to the WSI.
Little vacation pay in agriculture and catering
Apart from agriculture, vacation pay is also comparatively low in the hotel and catering industry. In Bavaria, tariff employees receive an additional 240 euros, while in Saxony, they receive 195 euros. However, some industries pay considerably higher vacation pay, such as the paper processing industry, the metal industry, the printing industry, the automotive sector, the insurance industry, the retail trade, the construction industry, and the chemical industry.
In the public sector, there's no separate vacation pay anymore. Since 2005, it's been bundled with the Christmas bonus and paid as a unified annual bonus in November. In the banking sector and in some industry-specific collective bargaining agreements in the energy industry, there's no tariff vacation pay.
