Reduce working hours for the same salary: How to convince your employer

Reduce your weekly working hours and leave with the same net salary? What at first seems too good to be true is already a reality for many employees. From a purely legal point of view, in many cases, employees even have the right to reduce their working hours. In this article you will discover how to negotiate with your employer so that the reduction in working hours does not have a negative impact on your salary.

Legal right to reduce working hours

In principle, employees have the legal right to reduce their working hours. The basis for this is Section 8 of the Part-Time and Fixed-Term Work Act (TzBfG). ¹.

However, in most cases, if working hours are reduced, so is Salary adjusted downwards accordingly becomes. Less work generally means less pay.

It should also be noted that the right according to Section 8 TzBfG can only be asserted if the employment relationship has existed for more than six months and the company regularly employs more than 15 employees.

If these requirements are met, nothing stands in the way of a reduction in working hours. Only urgent companies can authorize employers to object to the reduction of working hours.

Reduced working hours are usually accompanied by lower wages

However, in this case, as already mentioned, employees must expect a reduction in their gross salary. For example, anyone who reduces their working week from 40 to 30 hours (25%) should expect a salary reduction of the same amount.

However, a reduction in gross salary of 25% does not necessarily mean that net salary must also be reduced by this proportion.

It’s them progressive income tax rate due in Germany. The higher the gross salary, the more income tax or payroll tax the employee must pay on their income.

Anyone who earns less also has to pay less tax, both in percentage and absolute numbers. However, an exemplary reduction in working time of 25% has a major impact on the bottom line. Depending on the tax class and the original gross salary, the net salary is reduced by approximately 21 to 22%.

Salaries are not set in stone

However, salaries are generally a matter of negotiation and therefore a reduction in working hours does not necessarily have to result in a reduction in salary (by the same amount).

Especially when it’s just one slight reduction in working hours Depending on their position in the company, employees have a good chance of being able to reduce their working hours and maintain their usual salary.

The deciding factor is usually the importance of the employee to his or her employer and whether the planned reduction in working hours requires the employer to hire additional staff.

Anyone who moves from full-time to part-time employment and reduces their weekly working hours by 50%, for example, will struggle to achieve this reduction while maintaining the same salary.

How to negotiate better terms with your employer

However, many employees would already be satisfied if their Reduce weekly working time by a few hours so that on Friday, for example, you only have to work half a day – and with the same salary.

What seems like a pipe dream can, however, in many cases become a reality.

As already mentioned, what is crucial is the position in which the employee works, the tasks he must perform and how a reduction in working time affects the employee’s work performance and therefore, as a direct result, the company’s bottom line.

If an employee is able to complete their work tasks in 36 hours instead of 40 per week due to their many years of experience and seniority, more and more employers are willing to at least consider reducing working hours while maintaining the same salary – However, this proposal must be communicated openly.

And that’s exactly why it fails in most cases. Particularly in professional life, employees’ wishes are often not even communicated or there is a lack of factual arguments to present them convincingly.

Of course, this is always the fundamental attitude of the employer. But in the end: If you don’t ask, you don’t win.

If your commitment and skills mean that you need less time to complete your tasks than your employment contract or agreements with your employer stipulate, then this should certainly be rewarded – either through a pay increase or a reduction in contractually agreed working hours.

Negotiation Skills: Reducing Work Hours Instead of a Pay Raise

And this brings us directly to an extremely proven negotiation method used by many employers: Instead of a raise, offer a reduction in your working hours.

When it comes to salary increases, general managers and HR managers often start to grind their teeth. After all, higher costs for the company are never a reason to rejoice.

Anyone who instead suggests a slight reduction in working hours is often surprised at first, but experience shows that more and more employers are ready are ready to accept such a proposal.

As an employee, you can take advantage of annual discussions, as is the case in many companies, as well as proactively participate in negotiations.

However, it is often advisable to address the issue of salary increase first, then that of Reduction of working hours as an alternative suggestion introduce into the conversation.

This way, you open the conversation to a known (and often hated) topic and offer your interlocutor a modern alternative that initially does not entail any additional costs for your employer.

What reductions in working hours are realistic?

The number of hours or percentage of working time reduction may depend on various factors and should always be assessed in advance, on a case-by-case basis.

It is advisable to base this on a possible salary increase.

Typically, annual increases of between 3 and 10% can be achieved during salary negotiations. However, these values ​​vary widely and are, at best, considered rough guidelines.

The number of working hours must also be taken into account realistic can be removed without impacting business processes. Ultimately, reducing working hours should become a win-win situation for everyone involved.

The negotiation strategy must be chosen so that: Employers believe business is good for them.

For example, if you work 40 hours per week and hope for a 10% pay increase, you might instead consider a 5% reduction in working hours: the same pay for two hours less per week.

Just like a salary negotiation, working hours can of course be negotiated again in a year or two.

But even over several years, a reduction in weekly working hours of more than 20% is unlikely.

Otherwise, sooner or later the question will arise whether the position is really necessary or, failing that, whether the number of hours should be reduced.