Working Time Developments in Germany

The length of the standard workweek has been a contentious topic in Germany over the past thirty years. In the 1980s and 1990s, trade unions reached agreements to reduce normal hours, in order to raise employment. This chapter begins with an overview of the institutional context and the development of normal hours worked in Germany. Section 5.3 provides a review of the econometric evidence for Germany on the impact of reductions in standard hours on employment and wages. Section 5.4 shows that reductions in standard hours were accompanied by various forms of flexible working-time arrangements. Section 5.5 describes some well-known examples of firms which have increased normal hours and simultaneously pronounced working hours, employment, wages job guarantees. Section 5.6 presents an empirical analysis of the relationship between changes in standard hours and employment (and labor productivity) growth. Section 5.7 presents some concluding remarks.